How the pandemic revived the newspaper stunt

AFTER WEEKS of criticism of the government’s failure to organise enough personal protective equipment for health workers, a plane from China touched down at Heathrow Airport on April 28th with 20 tons of the stuff. But these were not government-ordered supplies; the consignment had been arranged by the Daily Mail, a newspaper that ministers have long credited as the authentic voice of Middle England. “Touchdown for Mail Force One,” roared the paper, above pictures of its precious cargo. More supplies will be procured thanks to donations from readers to a charity founded by the newspaper, Salesforce, a software firm, and Marshall Wace, a hedge fund.

The airlift is a classic example of journalism as spectacle. The Rothermere family’s publishing empire, which owns the Mail, started life with a 19th-century newspaper called Answers that promised to give away £1 a week for life to a reader who could guess the exact amount of bullion in the Bank of England’s vaults, points out Adrian Addison, author of “Mail Men”, a history of the paper. (Sapper C.D. Austin of the Ordnance Survey came within £2 and “married on the proceeds”.) Given the proud place of stunts in the firm’s history, it is no surprise that the current Lord Rothermere sits in on the daily video calls to co-...