Coverage of the Mellor Affair

COVERAGE involving David Mellor by Britain's quality press since his affair with an actress has easily outstripped publicity surrounding the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of York and some senior Conservative Party figures, writes Andrew Gliniecki.

A 'Mellormeter' devised by the Independent shows that articles mentioning Mr Mellor, the Secretary of State for National Heritage, since the revelation of his liaison with Antonia de Sancha on 19 July have appeared 436 times.

This beats the number of articles over the same period featuring the Princess of Wales (275) and the Duchess of York (197).

Mr Mellor also outstripped more senior Cabinet colleagues, Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary (281), Kenneth Clarke, the Home Secretary (191), and Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade (232).

John Major, the Prime Minister, topped the poll (998), however, along with his Chancellor, Norman Lamont (580).

In the nine weeks before the news about his affair broke, Mr Mellor was mentioned in just 287 articles.

----------------------------------------------------------------- COVERAGE OF THE MELLOR AFFAIR ----------------------------------------------------------------- Measured by the number of articles mentioning the name of the listed public figures by Britain's quality press since 19 July Public figure Daily Sunday Total coverage coverage David Mellor 329 107 436 John Major 737 261 998 Norman Lamont 416 164 580 Douglas Hurd 226 55 281 Princess of Wales 209 66 275 Paddy Ashdown 223 34 257 John Smith 200 52 252 Michael Heseltine 181 51 232 Duchess of York 132 65 197 Kenneth Clarke 161 30 191 -----------------------------------------------------------------