The power of celebrity

I've been to the Middle East twice in as many years, and nowhere else on the planet is the economic boom as evident. Dubai is the greatest example of this - and as business grows, so does the media industry.

But is it growing the right way? Do newspapers and magazines there know all the tricks of the trade that tabloid "junkies" like me know?

Well, if they don't, its relatively simple to learn. Right now I am working in New York, but wherever in the world I go, the basic rules are the same. If selling property is about "location, location, location" then rule one of driving circulation in the modern media age is "celebrity, celebrity, celebrity".

Whether you like it or not, we are all living in a celebrity age, so we may as well exploit the opportunities that brings us.

The most dispiriting aspect of this cultural phenomenon is that it has no relation to talent whatsoever.

The word celebrity itself comes from the Latin word ‘celebritatem' meaning, literally, ‘condition of being famous.' Which means that people just have to recognise you for you to be a celebrity. The irony of course being that most celebrities strive for years to be famous, then wear dark glasses to avoid being recognised and moan constantly about actually being famous.

Everyone in public life is now a celebrity - Sportsmen, politicians, royals, even murderers -if you are on TV, for whatever reason, you're famous and therefore a celebrity.

Dubai as an example is a perfect place to sell the commodity of celebrity. It is hot, rich, glamorous, exciting, full of tourists, and stars go there all the time.

I am frankly amazed there are not more newspapers and magazines opening in that part of the world all the time.

This is what I would call a prime, target-rich ratings and circulation environment.

And you should not hesitate to exploit celebrities for commercial gain in exactly the way they exploit the media for commercial gain.

This fame business is a two way street. They need you, and you need them.

Outside of major news events, the biggest selling issues when I was editing newspapers involved iconic celebrities David Beckham, the glamour model Jordan and the biggest star of them all - Princess Diana.

Every time you put one of these people on the front page of a paper or magazine, sales went up by at least 20,000 copies.

Even now, 10 years after her death, Diana is still being used to sell newspapers and magazines around the world.

I had lunch with her and Prince William one day at Kensington Palace, and I remember her taking me to the window, pointing to all the waiting photographers and asking: ‘Why is everyone so interested in me?'

The answer lies in hard statistics. when Diana died, the Mirror sold 800,000 extra papers the next day, and 3 million extra copies that week.

Contrast that with 9/11; that sold 400,000 extra copies of the Mirror the next day and about a million extra that week.

So the death of one celebrity was twice as big a circulation draw as the deaths of 3,000 people in the biggest terrorist attack of my lifetime.

Those statistics should say everything you need to know about the power of celebrity. Whether we like it or not, celebrity sells. Nobody can argue with the facts.

I feel the next two years will be crucial in the development of Middle East media. The road ahead to sell more copies of everything you print couldn't be clearer.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Morgan's reasoning is flawed
Posted by NIMBY, Dubai, UAE on Tuesday 8 January 2008 at 12:26 UAE time

Piers Morgan needs to spend a little more time in the region to appreciate this and not the UK, Europe or the US. 'Celebrity' simply doesn't sell here in the same way as it does overseas.
The reason the Mirror sold in the way it did was down to demographics and population. The UAE is not demographically comparable. And as such, will not react in the same way. Nor does it have the population of the UK.
Drawing comparisons with references to Princess Diana; does Morgan really think that salacious stories of prominent members of society here would actually reach the front pages? Book me on the next plane out if they do...
One of the aspects of the media here that I enjoy is the fact that it doesn't follow the model Morgan suggests. I'd rather not read about celebrity gossip which doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever.

Spare us
Posted by Jean-Marie Moussalli, Dubai, UAE on Tuesday 8 January 2008 at 08:20 UAE time

There is absolutely no need to publish an article that encourages the creation of celebrity-exploitation and tabloid creation and sales... we have enough publications and meager, gossip printing the way it is and the author can sell his 'distribution exploit skills' somewhere else thank you.

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