AS AN example of bullying journalism, it takes some beating. A tabloid buys a surreptitiously filmed sex-video of an actor in his 50s suffering from Parkinson's disease. It demands an exclusive. At first he collaborates, even writing the interview himself; later he sues for blackmail.

This is not another story emanating from the now-shuttered newsroom of the News of the World, where journalistic shenanigans have deeply embarrassed News Corporation, its owner. The tabloid in question is Bild Zeitung, Germany's biggest paper. Last year a court ruled that Bild's reporter had coerced the actor, Ottfried Fischer. In May a higher court overturned the verdict. A further appeal is pending.

Mr Fischer's fate shows that Britain has no monopoly on aggressive tabloids—a word initially used for compressed tablets in the late 19th century, but which then came to mean "compact" journalism. They are ubiquitous in developed countries and many developing ones, particularly in Brazil, where they have grown rapidly in recent years. Britain, with half-a-dozen national tabloids, probably has the most. France boasts no tabloid newspapers, though it has magazines (Closer and Gala) and the satirical weekly Canard Enchaîné that do a similar job (as far as that country's strict privacy laws allow). In America papers are mostly broadsheets, but tabloid-style television was invented there. Italy, Spain and Japan have tabloids focusing on sport with huge readerships: each copy goes through many hands.

With circulation comes clout. British politicians may be afraid of the tabloids, but the papers themselves see their role more as providing entertainment. The German tabloid is more political than its British counterpart, with three times more political coverage, says Susanne Höke, who has written a book comparing the Sun with Bild. In both countries tabloids help set the tone of political debate, but Bild's stunts are more imaginative and upmarket. Early in the euro crisis, Bild sent a reporter to hand out drachmas in Athens, allowing the paper to boast that it was giving "the bankrupt Greeks their drachmas back". It also mischievously suggested that the Greeks sell some islands and the Acropolis to pay their debt.

The political coverage helps hacks at the German paper take themselves seriously. Many see their paper as a pillar of democracy in the "midst of society", according to Kai Diekmann, its editor. It also makes them more hypocritical. "They know what they are doing, but don't admit it," says Ms Höke. Regulation also plays a role. Germany's press watchdog is less toothless than Britain's Press Complaints Commission. Better legal protection for journalists makes them less reliant on tough investigative methods. British tabloids spend a lot more on reporting and research than Bild, which relies more on freelancers and agencies, notes Ms Höke.

Scoops are one thing, skulduggery another. In the dark arts of journalism—hacking into voicemail, bribing the police for tips, or obtaining private financial and health information—British tabloids have stooped lower than anyone. Despite its treatment of Mr Fischer, Bild's behaviour is "clearly less destructive", says Lukas Heinser, who writes for BILDblog, which chronicles the paper's failings.

Farther east, the dirtiest tactics in the ex-communist world involve "Kompromat"—embarrassing information from government files, particularly involving corruption or ties with the former communist secret police. But this is leaked, not bought or stolen. Politicians' private lives are largely taboo, even in countries with lively tabloids such as Poland.

History and political culture explain some differences. In post-war France many editors had ties to former resistance networks. Papers are still seen as a means to further political aims, not to make money, says Jean-Clément Texier, an investment banker specialising in media. The French press has always catered to elites, notes Olivier Fleurot, former chief executive of the Financial Times Group: Le Figaro is for the wealthy, Libération for the cultured left, Le Monde for intellectuals. "They have not properly understood what a mass audience wants to see in a newspaper."

Tabloids have an edge when the rest of the media is conformist. Japan's media landscape is dominated by conglomerates, which see themselves as peers of industry and government rather than insurgents. Coverage is dominated by "Press Clubs", groups of reporters from big papers, who often have offices in the ministries they cover. That gives tabloids a special role in investigative reporting, even if they include much hearsay and error. They usually air dirty laundry before the tamer mainstream press dares touch it. In 2007 the tabloids broke the allegations of match-fixing in sumo wrestling, the national sport.

But the most important reason for the variation in tabloid cultures is economic. If the Sun and its rivals are more aggressive than Bild, it is because competition in Britain is more intense than it is in Germany, or anywhere else. Whereas British tabloids are sold on newsstands, which makes sensationalist headlines even more important, Bild is a quasi-monopoly.

In America most papers are subscription-based regional monopolies, which leads them to be more balanced in their coverage, says Richard Edmonds of the Poynter Institute, a media think-tank that owns a majority stake in the (Florida) St Petersburg Times. And the few remaining strands of tabloid journalism are being cut, as slimmed-down newspapers focus on local fare. What is more, good American tabloid journalists seem in scarce supply, probably a result of sharply varying ethics (think puritanical American professionalism versus anything-goes British ruthlessness). The New York Post and the National Enquirer more than once felt the need to import British hacks.

For all their differences, tabloids in most rich countries have one common feature: shrinking circulation. Although the News of the World was Britain's second biggest paper, with a circulation of 2.6m, this was a far cry from the more than 9m it sometimes sold in the 1950s. Bild has lost more than 1.5m buyers since 2001.

Yet it would be premature to see the closure of the News of the World as the beginning of the end of tabloid journalism. Although tabloid news is in decline in print, it is staging a revival online, where sensationalist headlines attract most clicks. With 40m unique visitors, according to comScore, the website of the Daily Mail, another British tabloid, is the world's second biggest newspaper website after the New York Times. And Bild has found success online. These two join a lively set of tabloid blogs, including the Drudge Report and even the Huffington Post (which launched its British edition on July 6th). After all, as Oscar Wilde reported: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."