Paper Monitor
11:27 UK time, Monday, 10 September 2007
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
With the price of the Guardian rising a full 10p to 80p a pop from today, Paper Monitor is rather ruing its failure to purchase a copy of Saturday's Times, in which an intense looking Paul McKenna promised "I can make you rich" to anyone who happened to glance at the front page.
Given that inflation currently stands at 1.9%, how does the Guardian justify this 14% increase in price?
"While many news organisations are cutting staff and expenditure on reporting, the Guardian is committed to investing in… quality journalism."
Well lah-de-dah. Then again, if it's a question of shelling out 10p more or getting the same story twice (re at least one edition of today's Times, which prints "Fears over eating disorders prompt catwalk ban on younger models" on pages 22 and 26), the Guardian's argument seems to have some gumption.
But for the time being, Paper Monitor will be keeping a close watch on the paper, looking for consistent evidence of a 12.1% (allowing for inflation, you see) rise in editorial standards.
Such observations could be somewhat overlooked alongside the wall-to-wall Madeleine coverage in all today's papers, but there is room here and there for other stories, such as coverage of New York Fashion Week. And against the backdrop of slipping standards in quality journalism, it's heartening to see the normal rules of fashion journalism still apply. Plenty of pictures of glamorous, statuesque women and barely an unkind word of actual criticism from the assembled correspondents.
Oh dear, has Paper Monitor sacrificed its chances of an air kiss or two at next week's London Fashion Week?
The 
