R.I.P. Red Top Mirror

RED TOP MIRROR, after having been off colour for about six months, and after many years' service. True to character, it did not slip away quietly. Rather it went shouting and screaming.

It is succeeded by Black-and-white Top Mirror.

Red Top had lived for decades in its comfortable slot on Fleet Street. It had been the first of its kind to move in to the neighbourhood, but it soon was not alone, being joined by arch rivals Red Top Sun and Red Top Star.

Other more gentrified residents of the street would often despair at what they saw as a decline in the tone of the area.

The good old bad old days

But Red Top Mirror found itself somewhat eclipsed by its more prosperous neighbour Red Top Sun. It longed to be the influential player it once had been.

In announcing the passing of Red Top Mirror, the paper's editor Piers Morgan spoke a eulogy, saying it had once been a proud badge. But Red Top had become associated with "downmarket, sleazy and tacky journalism".

Friends will wonder if they somehow foresaw Red Top's fate after the start of the war on terror, when the Mirror began taking a non-traditional approach to tabloid news, i.e. putting weighty stories on the front page.

Enemies will say that, in simultaneously doubling the number of Mirror pages devoted to celebrity gossip, the spirit of Red Top surely lives on.

No flowers.

---

Add your tribute to Red Top Mirror by using the form below.