Martin Clarke defends Daily Mail website’s coverage of EU referendum, also attacking critics of its so-called ‘sidebar of shame’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Mail Online publisher Martin Clarke has vigorously defended the website’s coverage of immigration ahead of Thursday’s EU referendum, saying the migrant story that prompted a correction last week still involved people “in the back of a van illegally.”

“We’ve reported people’s very legitimate fears over immigration,” he told MediaGuardian on Tuesday. “We don’t stoke the fears. The fears are there.”

On Friday, the Daily Mail was criticised by independent charity the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants over a front-page story that first appeared on Clarke’s website claiming that a group of migrants who arrived in the UK in the back of a lorry were from Europe.



The fact they were from the Middle East resulted in the correction.

“I regret getting anything wrong,” said Clarke. “But if you want to try to demolish the legitimate fears and concerns over immigration on the basis of one story then that’s ridiculous.”

“At the end of the day the people in that van did come from somewhere via somewhere. They may not have been from Europe but they were in the back of a van illegally.”

“Obviously you regret getting anything wrong, but I would say on behalf both the website and the paper that the agency responsible for that story is not one that I would expect to have to double check.”



He added that, given the most popular stories on the site and the comments left on it: “I’m guessing our readers are pro-Brexit.”

‘Sidebar of shame’

In a bullish interview on board the biggest of the Mail’s two yachts in Cannes this week, Clarke took aim at critics of his website’s so-called “sidebar of shame” and said there was “no alternative” to the ad-funded model for newspaper websites.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Daily Mail corrected its front-page story claiming that migrants had said they were from Europe

Those who fear the media’s obsession with body image and its impact on young readers have long criticised Mail Online for stories on the right hand side of the site, which is overwhelmingly populated by female bodies.

“The women who appear in that column want to be in it,” said Clarke. “Trust me. They are obsessive about it.

“Look at Instagram. Who posts all the pictures of themselves in their posh frock or with their bikini body or in swimsuit? Who does that? It’s not generally men … You can only deal with society as it is.”

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Both Clarke and his chief of staff said that the column is overwhelmingly read and written by women.

With the Daily Mail expected to come out in favour of Brexit, in opposition to the Mail on Sunday, Clarke said the website “tried to do it straight” despite promoting the views of pro-Brexit columnist Katie Hopkins.

‘Wait and see’ on profits



DMGT, the company behind the website, warned of worse than expected profits recently but Clarke said Mail Online would start making a profit “sooner than you think”. When asked when, he simply said: “wait and see.”



Clarke scoffed at the idea of charging for content, pointing out that US competitors like Buzzfeed or the Huffington Post were set to remain free.

“They would come into Britain like a plague of locusts if British newspapers started retreating behind a paywall … if you want to make money you need to have a big global audience.”

With more than 815 employees around the world, about half of whom are journalists, Clarke said he was still hiring. Almost all editorial investment will be focused on the US in the near term.

He said Mail Online publishes more than 1,600 stories, 20,000 pictures and 650 videos a day.



More than 60% of its UK audience and 40% in the US comes direct to the site, not via social media in the UK. “I don’t want to have my business riding on a Facebook algorithm,” he said.

Unlike most of Mail Online’s rivals, Clarke is not unduly bothered by ad blocking, saying it is not “a particular issue at the moment”.

Mail Online: unlikely to introduce a paywall Photograph: Mail Online

Unlike the website, the print titles are profitable. Asked whether the company would ever become online-only, Clarke said: “It’s not my call but wouldn’t have thought so for a very long time.”

Clarke said he was having “several conversations” about potential non-English-language sites but not in the short term.

Asked whether the power of editor-in-chief Paul Dacre was waning, Clarke said: “I have known and worked with Paul for almost 30 years and I would not say his power was waning.”

• This article was amended on 22 June 2016 to remove a quote suggesting that Clarke was opposed to newspapers selling ads together. He was in fact talking about joint paywalls