If you can hear champagne corks popping from inside the Mail newsrooms, those unaware of the outlet’s editorial line would be forgiven for thinking it was in response to this morning’s political developments. Rather the reason for the celebratory hacks is probably because they’re now being bribed with bubbles for doing the bare minimum: following their own company Twitter account…

This morning the entirety of the Mail’s newsroom received a message from HR promising bottles of bubbly to any member of staff who followed the Mail+ Twitter account and retweeted a post from them.

Guido’s eyebrow-raised Mail mole noted that, despite Mail+ being around for a good few years, only now is it suddenly getting the support of editors and the executives. Back in March, Guido revealed the website was making major cuts – including star presenter Michael Crick and Sarah Vine – in light of rumours of a £20 million loss. To be fair to Mail+, their revamp does make it a decent place to get news and read stories. Good to see they’ve got the spare cash to spend on luxury plonk…

Over the weekend Twitter was trending with news that Boris was yet again doomed because Jonathan Harmsworth (Lord Rothermere) had turned against him. Guido has tracked down the sources of this conspiracy theory…

On Saturday night Tim Walker tweeted about an article he had written for the New European – where Alastair Campbell is Editor-at-Large – which claimed:

It’s over now for Johnson. The Mail papers were his last defenders. They’ve given up on him now, too. The dynamic here was Rothermere and his concern for his papers and Dacre and his concern for his peerage. Rothermere has had enough of that. … Trust me, this change of direction is seismic.

Likewise, Adam Bienkov, political editor of the conspiracy website Byline Times, joined in by opining on Sunday:

The Mail turning on Boris Johnson means the last prop keeping him in power is starting to fall. If it weren’t for his few remaining press supporters, Johnson would have long ago been forced out of Downing Street.

Tim Walker had some kind of breakdown over Brexit, and Adam Bienkov has written for a decade about the coming collapse of Boris. Their followers lapped it up and it was trending on Twitter with much rejoicing and admiration for the new-found wisdom of Lord Rothermere. Monday came, and this morning’s Mail leader will have unravelled all their hopes:

A Daily Mail editorial, fulsome with praise and advice for Boris that suggests perhaps the paper hasn’t turned against him. As it “asserts this paper unequivocally believes Boris Johnson is the right man to lead the party and the country”. Walker and Bienkov have yet to explain how their seismic weekend scoop has unravelled on Monday… 

Big changes afoot over at Northcliffe House as Mail+ – the online branch of the Daily Mail definitely not to be confused with the Mail Online – makes some major changes to cut losses. Guido learns that Michael Crick has gone along with most of their video team being made redundant last month. Editor Gordon Thompson has also left, supposedly of his own accord. It is noticeable that the production of expensive original video content is being dropped at a number of digital media outlets. Clearly Lord Rothermere, like Guido, is unable to figure out how to make news-focused video content commercially viable…

The Mail mole who alerted Guido to the Mail’s de-Cricking also said that, amid rumours of a £20 million loss, Andrew Pierce and Sarah Vine are also facing the loss of their podcasts. No doubt they’ll be relieved not to do them…

The great new hope of Lord Rothermere for the digital future that is the Mail+ venture is making half its staff redundant this week. Redundancy notices have gone out, though not for his son, 26 year-old Vere Rothermere, who is finding his way in the family business at Mail+.

Readers and media commentators might be a little confused by the fierce competition between the Daily Mail’s editor Geordie Grieg, Mail Online edited by Martin Clark and Mail+, which was managed by Tristan Davies until he too got the boot a few weeks ago. They all jealously compete against each other for resources and star hacks’ time. The Mail on Sunday less so, although it too has to resentfully cough up content to to Mail Online. It was noticeable that in his prematurely boastful interview in GQ, Geordie Grieg overlooked mentioning Mail+ for some reason..

Mail+, unlike Mail Online, charged for content which was a bit more upmarket than updates about Kim Kardashian’s bottom. It doesn’t appear that people are willing to pay for it though. Sadly this means they are cutting back half their staff. Guido thought something was up when he noticed that many of their podcasts – which they gave away free – were not being updated. The politics podcast was last updated in July. Just as well nothing has happened in politics…

For a new media venture it appears to be getting little traction, despite big name stars like Andrew Pierce tweeting out daily made-for-social videos, interviews with and stories about the royals, reports from Michael Crick and content from star columnists, Mail+ has a mere 3,535 followers on Twitter. The approach isn’t working…

N.B. If you have top-notch digital audio/video production skills and are looking for work – do get in touch team@order-order.com.