Martin Clarke
Cocky, brash, short-tempered, workaholic and unashamedly rightwing, Martin Clarke was never going to be the kind of media figure regularly invited on to Newsnight to trade purring witticisms with Evan Davis. He has, however, been Britain’s most influential newspaperman of the past quarter century, an achievement all the more remarkable given that he doesn’t actually work on a newspaper.
Clarke, in his early fifties, is the man behind Mail Online, the world’s most-read English language newspaper website. It was launched by the Daily Mail in 2003, but has been controlled by Clarke, first as editor then as publisher, since 2006, and its innovations — the sidebar of shame, the green and red arrows, the huge pictures — were his.
Its most important single lasting legacy will be its demonstration of the power of what media analysts call “guilty pleasure browsing”. Before Mail Online, editors of quality newspapers worried about featuring too much content that seemed trashy; nowadays, they accept that if you want reader numbers, you have to recognise that even “quality” readers apparently like looking at Kim Kardashian’s arse, even if they
Clarke is Britain’s most influential newspaperman of the past quarter century, all the more remarkable given that he doesn’t actually work on a newspaper
do feel a bit sullied afterwards. Clarke, a Kent grammar school boy known for his black trenchcoat, shouting, smoking and signature instruction to reporters: “I want every cough and spit,” is unapologetic about chasing big numbers (Mail Online currently has more than 200m monthly visitors).
Some commentators feel there is too big a difference between the tone of the newspaper and its website, but he insists the site embodies Mail values of sound, brave and investigative reporting. Some will regard that claim with scepticism, but meeting Clarke, as I did for Esquire in 2011, there is no doubt about his sense of leading a moral crusade for the ordinary and unheard against the establishment. He can seem a bit mad, but you have to admire his conviction.
Of course, the shortcomings are many and wellknown: besides the typos and dubious stories, there have been gaffes like the obviously pre-written and mistaken account of the Amanda Knox trial, published in error when the verdict was misunderstood. More recently, Clarke has had to defend Mail Online against accusations of racism in its coverage of immigration and explain the surprising content-sharing deal with China’s
People’s Daily.
It’s true that in some people — the sort of people Clarke detests — such things make him an unsuitable candidate for inclusion in a list like this. However, we are talking here about the men who have shaped our culture, and there seems little denying that as well as amassing an awful lot of readers, Martin Clarke’s Mail
Online has been to the first decades of the 21st century what Kelvin MacKenzie’s Sun was to the Eighties, and Hugh Cudlipp’s Daily Mirror was to the Fifties and early Sixties, in being the news platform that most closely captures the mood and tone of the country’s mainstream.