Daily Mail could have handed over around £100k for Ashcroft’s Cameron biography
The Daily Mail has reportedly paid out a six-figure sum to procure the serialisation rights for Lord Ashcroft’s biography of David Cameron, Call Me Dave, an act being viewed as a ‘declaration of war’ by the mid-market tabloid.
According to The Guardian the paper splashed out ‘significantly more than £50,000 – and possibly in excess of £100,000,’ to secure the rights, ensuring that the rights didn’t even make it to auction.
Extracts from the book made lurid headlines around the world yesterday amidst a suggestion, from one unnamed source, that the Prime Minister may have interfered with a dead pig during a bizarre university initiation ceremony.
Explaining the rationale behind the move one unidentified Fleet Street source told The Guardian that it amounted to a ’declaration of war’ by the Mail’s editor-in-chief Paul Dacre on Cameron, amidst concerns that the government has been soft on key issues such as immigration and Europe.
A Daily mail spokesperson said: “This is a hugely anticipated and important biography and, in common with almost every other serious national daily and Sunday newspaper, we were interested in serialising it.
“We are delighted that Lord Ashcroft came to the decision that the Mail was the right paper to be granted first exclusive serialisation rights.”
Call Me Dave, published by Biteback, has seen its initial print run extended to over 10,000 after picking up an order from a major supermarket chain.