A typical DM 'story'.

The 'story' has now attracted over 3,000 comments, nearly all what one would expect. Very few DM readers appear to have done the simple arithmetic.

I love reading the Mail on Sunday, purely for Liz Jones's column. She presents herself as such a bitter, unpleasant person and for some time she has been pretending to be the lover of a 'rock star' . I think she keeps herself in her job by offending as many people as possible - it is very funny.

Yes, it's worth it for Liz Jones. What a rich imagination she has!

Whilst everyone gets their knickers in a right/left twist about newspapers a larger issue looms: who is going to be buying newspapers in the future? I have three children who have grown up in a newspaper reading household and none of them buy a newspaper. They pick and mix their intake of news, online using PCs, tablets and phones. They might watch the news on TV or pick up a free paper. They are all well educated and not unusual amongst their friends. I also think they are more free thinking than their parents' generation and more inclined to make up their own minds on an issue as it arises.

The Guardian, so beloved on here, is haemorrhaging money. One of the most profitable newspapers today is a free one, 'Metro' - a light read on the train or tube owned partially by...*The Daily Mail*. As all media exists to make money, that has to come from advertising - the Metro is thriving as they can sell advertising.

My youngest child is 23 so maybe older GNs will contradict me and will see a thriving future for the print industry.

I remember reading somewhere that the Daily Mail online is the most read online newspaper.

I don't see anybody getting their knickers in a twist, Sel. I don't think The Guardian is held in very high esteem any more - too many people thought it was too close to Blair.
I don't think printed newspapers will survive - young people seem to spend most of their free time using their technological devices and they can get all the news and features they want from them.

Then we agree on that Greatnan

Interestingly, this issue, mentioned in the DM was picked up by LBC Radio (and no doubt, many others). I was listening to a phone in in the car and the callers were all of the 'outraged of Surbiton' variety. The grounds for their outrage were that this girl of 20, who has never worked and has a new two bed Council flat in Croydon can manage to save £2000 out of her benefits to buy Christmas presents for her children when they, the callers, who were working and paying taxes, couldn't dream of doing the same. They were coming to the conclusion, naturally, that she was being given too much.

Regardless of the Maths, this is the subtext of this story and in a time when people are suffering and many have had their income cut over the last few years it was hardly wise for her to give this to the media, Closer, the DM or whatever.

Not sure that is true about the Guardian, Greatnan. We, along with most of our friends were pretty outraged when they supported the Lib Dems in the last election, though.
I have always read the Guardian, though I grew up in a Tory voting, Telegraph and Express household. Now I pay for the app as I can't buy the paper here. They don't always get it right, but they have some excellent journalists and we would never have had phone hacking exposed without them.

I think, regardless of whether the DM has all its facts straight, if the main part of the story is true, then I think a lot of people will be feel p*****d off that this girl has never worked or never intends to work and just take money from taxpayers. Holidays? I wish I could afford holidays.

I look at most daily papers/weekly/monthly magazines that interest me on-line. I'm fortunate in having The New Statesman and The New Scientist passed on to me, which I in turn pass on to others, and I can get The New Yorker from our little local library - who don't want them back - so those get passed on, too!

I find I value world photo-journalism almost as much, if not more, than the written word. The New York Times being particularly good in this area.

There's so much more out there - along with the 4 main UK papers of course

So the DM has achieved its purpose, in spite of the ridiculous story. Surely the fact that the headline is belied by the facts in the body of the story gives anybody pause for thought. This woman is NOT living on £516 a month - the whole story is nonsense - but why let the facts get in the way of a good story. Let's just give people something to be indignant about.
Well done, DM!

janthea thank you for proving the point about DM readers!!!

Sel, I can see that it looks stupid of this girl to publicise her story, but she could be hoping to get some kind of 'celebrity' work, like the girls in The Only Way is Essex, and no doubt she got a good fee from Closer magazine.
I am highly suspicious - she could be in a well paid job - we only know what we have been told.
The response was predictable and makes me rather sad.

Jodi - not a good post. We try to avoid personal insults. But I do understand your frustration.

Why should jodi be frustrated? Surely not everyone can be expected to agree with the general consensus?

It's a moot point greatnan though. If ANY ardent supported of a particular paper is happy to embrace the philosophy of their chosen paper then how can it be an insult? If, fir example, I said 'thank you for proving the point about Guardian readers' or 'readers of Private Eye' then would that be an insult? As a reader of PI myself I'd certainly not take it as an insult...even if such was the intent.

I think the insult is only in the eye of the independent observer

No pun intended incidentally.

I have no idea why she did it, almost deliberately provocative. She is very young and appears to be proud of saving. The children look happy and well cared for but I question the role model they are being exposed to. I looked online , the comments reflect the ones I heard from working parents on the radio.

The main thrust of your argument seems to concern the maths , in croydon, a new 2 bed flat would be approx a quarter of a million. Paying for that via a mortgage would account for the bulk of the average take home pay. Housing costs, which you have taken out are colossal and beyond many who have studied and work hard. If you can say these facts as reported are incorrect, then, fair enough but if they are correct then it's completely right to draw attention to them.

As a parent, how do you encourage your children to work hard at school etc if, in fact, you will do a great deal better by leaving school at 16 with zero exams , get pregnant and have no intention of working?

Ana, we are asking people to look at the 'facts' of the story, which are simply not credible. Does anybody really believe that a mother and two children could live on £516 a month? Perhaps the £250 a month she is supposed to 'save' pays for household repairs, clothing, insurance, electricity, transport, etc. etc. It beggars belief that it is available to spend on luxury goods and holidays.
We are simply asking DM readers to use their common sense. It is not a question of one's political allegiances however much anyone tries to turn it into a right/left argument. We are talking about decent journalism.

I have no idea why she did it, almost deliberately provocative. She is very young and appears to be proud of saving. The children look happy and well cared for but I question the role model they are being exposed to. I looked online , the comments reflect the ones I heard from working parents on the radio.

The main thrust of your argument seems to concern the maths , in croydon, a new 2 bed flat would be approx a quarter of a million. Paying for that via a mortgage would account for the bulk of the average take home pay. Housing costs, which you have taken out are colossal and beyond many who have studied and work hard. If you can say these facts as reported are incorrect, then, fair enough but if they are correct then it's completely right to draw attention to them.

As a parent, how do you encourage your children to work hard at school etc if, in fact, you will do a great deal better by leaving school at 16 with zero exams , get pregnant and have no intention of working?

Oops, sorry for duplication...my phone us roo small!!

Who's trying to turn it into a left/right argument? Presumably the figures are the ones given by the woman concerned, as is the information about holidays etc. Should the publications involved have refused to publish the story in case she was lying?

Well said Ana!!

I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a newspaper to check the facts of a story - and these facts simply don't add up.
It was Sel who talked about people getting their knickers in a right/left twist. I was studiously avoiding any hint of political allegiance, as I don't think it is necessarily related to the choice of newspaper.

Greatnan do you know the facts simply don't add up? I don't. I looked at Closer online, the source of this story and it seems to me they have printed this, lapping up everything this silly girl said. Goodness knows who found whom.

And Greatnan to quote "I was studiously avoiding any hint of political allegiance, as I don't think it is necessarily related to the choice of newspaper" - your OP being headed "A typical DM story" is almost laughable. Maybe you have the inside facts that have evaded Closer and the DM? Or, are you calling the girl in question a liar?

It would seem that we choose our papers for many different reasons. The main paper that we take is the Sunday Times and I am not interested in its politics, but chose it for the culture section, the excellent book reviews and above all else the Spectrum feature each week which focuses on photography.

We also receive Private Eye.

My brother and his wife read the DM and are, I would say, pretty prejudiced in their outlook - there are many subjects we keep well off by mutual agreement. They did have a problem with the many projects that I worked on with Gypsies and Travellers!