View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

Only the FT is immune from Fleet Street royal wedding fever as Clarence House announces Prince Harry engagement on Twitter

By Freddy Mayhew

A new royal wedding has sent Fleet Street into overdrive, with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement announcement yesterday prompting no fewer than five souvenir specials.

Photos of the prince and his bride-to-be adorned the front pages of nearly every major national newspaper today, with only the Financial Times refusing to make space for the happy couple.

Scroll down for front pages

The FT has run two stories on the engagement – in stark contrast to frenzied coverage across rival newspapers – one noting dryly that the wedding is “unlikely to do much to boost Britain’s sluggish economy”.

Newsrooms have been waiting in anticipation of a royal announcement for months, with expectant news crews said to have turned up outside the gates of Kensington Palace last week in a fever pitch.

The Mail on Sunday was proven correct in reporting royal sources claiming the couple were “set to bring months of fevered speculation to an end by announcing their engagement this week” on Sunday. The Sunday Express also had the story this week that the engagement was imminent.

The news that the pair were in a relationship was originally broken by the Sunday Express on 30 October, last year.

Ultimately it was Clarence House that scooped the newspapers, announcing the engagement on Twitter at 10am on Monday.

Members of the press were invited to a royal photocall at Kensington Palace the same afternoon, but were separated from the Prince and his actress fiancé by a lake, forcing reporters to yell questions at them.

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsTom/status/935149404167827457

It was BBC Today programme presenter Mishal Husain who was granted the first – and likely only – official engagement interview with the couple, which was pooled to all other news outlets.

Front pages:

 

…and the Financial Times…

 

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly dose of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how Progressive Media Investments may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network