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Monday 28 March 2011

Desperate Express, Desperate Website

The economy measures at the Desmond press, together with the increasingly intrusive adverts pervading the papers’ web presence, can mean one of two things: that Des and his dwindling band of hacks are coining it, or that they’re desperate to stem losses and squeeze as much as possible out of their audience.

Thus far, this blog has noted several pieces run by the Express that appeared on other websites the previous day, there have been repeated instances of the paper running advertorials, and of course there has been a steady stream of Euro-frighteners, based on real events but otherwise invented.

More Maddie - with compulsory addy

So far, so irritating, but now a visit to the Express site means adverts, whether the visitor wants them or not. Today’s revisiting of the Madeleine McCann story is typical: clicking on the headline not only opens the post, but starts an advert running. The ad can be stopped, but this action then starts another advert, for the paper itself.

In addition, many stories on the Express site contain what look like relevant links, although these set off yet more adverts. Then, just in case you hadn’t reached advertising saturation point, the “From Around The Web” list at the foot of the story page also contains a high proportion of advertorial links.

Irritating adverts – clearly a new Benchmark of Excellence.

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