When Alfred Harmsworth launched the Daily Mail in 1896, sensational crime coverage was a staple of the half-penny daily newspaper’s hit mass-market formula.
Nearly 130 years on, great-grandson Jonathan still owns the company and his son Vere Harmsworth is on the shopfloor leading the commercial strategy,
And crime coverage is now at the forefront of the Mail’s expansion into online audio and video as the print edition (which still sells more than one million copies on Saturdays) faces inevitable decline.
The Mail currently has 20 editorial staff working on crime content, which last month generated some 24 million video views on Tiktok and Youtube. Over the past year crime podcast and video content is said to have generated 160 million views and listens.
Press Gazette spoke to Daily Mail head of podcasts Jamie East about the expanding crime portfolio as the Mail put all its crime content onto one The Crime Desk homepage, with a new dedicated weekly email newsletter.
The Mail’s true crime Tiktok account (1.3 million followers) has also been rebranded as The Crime Desk.
East told Press Gazette: “True crime, certainly from a podcast point of view, has the most engaged listenership out of any genre whatsoever. Hands down.
“So it’s hugely attractive to the commercial team as well.”
Crime podcasting at the Daily Mail largely began with The Trial, which was launched in 2022 providing daily updates on the trial of Lucy Letby. It has since spawned spin-off versions covering trials in the UK, US and Australia
Other podcasts from the Mail include: Charlene (a new series looking at the disappearance of 14-year-old Charlene Downes in Blackpool in 2003), An Appointment With Murder (hosted by two doctors specialising in crime) and a variety of short series and investigations.
Subscribers get early access to complete podcast series and exclusive access to The Trial+ for £3.99 per month. East wrote on Linkedin that Charlene is “the biggest driver of subscription to The Crime Desk since we launched The Trial+”.
East told Press Gazette: “The Trial kickstarted it all, mainly because no one else could do it. It’s such a beast of a production from a legal standpoint and it’s resource heavy, so there aren’t many people that could actually get it out.
“We’re on our 14th series of the trial now and it shows no sign of slowing down.
“With court reporting, you’ve got to have someone physically there because it’s not just about the transcripts, it’s about the nuances and the behaviour.
“I’d say in probably 30% of the cases they plead guilty on the first day, so you plan all your great plans, but you’re at the mercy of the legal system when someone pleads guilty, which is obviously great for the victims and great for the court system, but slightly annoying from a content point of view.”
East said the Mail has been able to rapidly build out a crime podcasting operation thanks to the existing newspaper and website reporting team.
“The trial wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Mail’s crime desk… My main remit is using as many of Ted’s [editor Ted Verity] amazing journos as possible to make podcasts and they’re all super.
“What sets us apart from, I guess, from your armchair enthusiast is that we have all the material. We’re not just trying to build an episode out of Wikipedia.
“We always come at it from a journalistic angle and certainly from a podcast point of view, if we’re not bringing anything new to the story, there’s no point in just retelling it for gore reasons or for clicks.
“The Charlene Downes one that we have just launched is a 14-year-old cold case. But [actor and campaigner] Nicola Thorp, who brought it to me, has uncovered new evidence and talks in great details about grooming gangs and police failings, which couldn’t be more pertinent in the news cycle.”
He said: “Crime coverage was one of the pillars that the Daily Mail was launched on. It’s the thing that the paper has always done best, really, especially the backgrounders. And this is just a way of, I guess, reinvigorating that for a new audience.”
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