Paper Monitor
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
The weekend's blistering weather prompted an army of photographers to make the familiar journey to the East Sussex coast for that irresistible combination of sun, breasts and a day return rail ticket. In a strand that shall henceforth be known as Brighton Beach Mammoirs (apologies to Neil Simon), Paper Monitor will be keeping keen tabs this summer on flesh shots from the resort popularly known as London-on-Sea. Today's exponents include the Sun, the Times, the Mirror and the Daily Mail and Metro, which both feature a classic of the oeuvre (as described in last Thursday's Paper Monitor) with the Brighton pier in the background.
The Times and Sun meanwhile offer up a nice example of that old Fleet Street favourite - the non-exclusive exclusive. In this case, the Sun's "WORLD EXCLUSIVE" of extracts from Cherie Blair's memoirs - "how she conceived Leo at royal summer residence... how she fell out with two members of the Royal Family" bear more than a passing similarity with the Times' "the Queen liked us - but her sister and Princess Anne didn't".
But why, Paper Monitor wonders, does the Sun's "adapted" extract refrain from mentioning the paper's current editor, Rebekah Wade, by name? Compare and contrast, the following, in which Mrs B recounts a tussle over breaking the story of her pregnancy in 1999.
The Times: "On the way to the meeting, Fiona's mobile rang. It was Rebekah Wade, the deputy editor of the Sun... I took the phone. I'd known Rebekah for some time and had a certain amount of respect for her... We had a girly chat."
The Sun: "On the way to the meeting, Fiona's mobile rang. It was a friend from the Sun... I took the phone. We had a girly chat."