Paper Monitor

11:56 UK time, Tuesday, 1 January 2008

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

The journalists who write the newspapers that some of you still love are only human.

During the time when much of the rest of the world is drinking and eating themselves silly, the reporters and subs of our august national journals are forced to chronicle it.

So it is perhaps understandable then that the punnery is not as peerless as the rest of the year and many headlines have a hollow feel.

Story about wood pigeons enjoying a remarkable resurgence? In the Daily Mail it’s “Wood pigeons stage a coo”, while in the Daily Telegraph it’s “A very British coo”. Bit obvious you might suggest, and you’d be right. The Daily Mirror used the headline “A very British coo” on another story about pigeons on 22 December. A mere 10 days ago.

In the Mirror, there’s a feature about this being a big time of the year for sales of couches. Headline? “What’s the story sofa?”. Oh dear.

And there seems to be some confusion over in the Daily Star. Page 7 carries a story about fans demanding the return of Celebrity Big Brother which has been replaced this year by a new variation called Celebrity Hijack. How is this interpreted on the front page? “Celeb BB in shock comeback”. Eh?

Paper Monitor cannot read any more.