You’ve seen it. Everyone has. That long, scrolling vertical column of celebrity "candids," bold black headlines, and those impossible-to-ignore bullet points at the top of every story. It’s the daily mail original format, and honestly, it’s one of the most successful pieces of digital architecture in the history of the internet. While other news sites were trying to look like the New York Times or some minimalist tech blog, the Mail went the other way. They leaned into the chaos. They doubled down on the "sidebar of shame." And it worked.
It’s weirdly addictive.
The magic isn't just in the gossip. It's in how the information is packaged. The daily mail original format was designed to be scanned at 100 miles per hour while you’re waiting for a bus or avoiding a work email. It’s loud. It’s repetitive. It’s unapologetic. Most people think it’s just about being "tabloid," but there’s a massive amount of psychological engineering behind why those specific layouts keep you clicking for forty-five minutes straight.
The Sidebar of Shame: A Masterclass in Human Curiosity
If you talk to any UX designer about the Daily Mail, they’ll probably shudder. It breaks every rule of "clean" design. But that right-hand column—affectionately or derisively known as the Sidebar of Shame—is the engine of the entire site. In the daily mail original format, the sidebar isn't just a list of related links. It's a never-ending feed of human interest, high-resolution paparazzi shots, and "how they look now" stories.
It creates a "loop." You finish one article, and your eyes naturally drift right. Oh, look, a reality star is on a beach in Ibiza. Click. You finish that one. Oh, a royal family member looked slightly annoyed at a wedding. Click.
This isn't an accident. Martin Clarke, the long-time editor of MailOnline who stepped down in 2022, was the primary architect of this madness. He understood something fundamental: people say they want "important" news, but what they actually consume is "interesting" news. The layout reflects that reality. It’s a literal waterfall of content. You don’t navigate the Mail; you drown in it.
Why the "Top-Heavy" Bullet Points Work
Before you even get to the first paragraph of a story, the daily mail original format gives you three to five bullet points. They’re usually long. They basically tell you the whole story. You’d think this would stop people from reading the article, right?
Nope.
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It does the opposite. It acts as a hook. By the time you’ve read the third bullet point, you’ve already committed to the narrative. You’re invested. It also serves a massive SEO purpose. Those bullet points are packed with keywords and semantic variations that help the page rank for long-tail searches. It’s a genius bridge between satisfying a human reader’s "tl;dr" (too long; didn't read) instinct and feeding the Google algorithm.
Headlines That Take Up Half the Screen
Standard journalism schools teach you to keep headlines short. Five to eight words. Maybe ten if you’re pushing it. The Daily Mail laughs at that.
In the daily mail original format, headlines are often forty words long. They are basically mini-essays. They contain the "who, what, where, when," and a very specific "why" that usually involves an emotional hook. They use what I call "curiosity gaps" but without the clickbait vagueness of 2014-era Buzzfeed. They don't say "You won't believe what happened." They tell you exactly what happened, but they leave out just enough detail about the reaction or the consequence that you feel compelled to see the pictures.
The pictures. Let's talk about the pictures.
The daily mail original format treats images differently than almost any other news outlet. They don't just use one or two photos to illustrate a point. They use thirty. They use every single frame the paparazzi took. If a celebrity is walking from their car to a coffee shop, you see the car door opening, the foot touching the pavement, the mid-stride, the coffee order, and the exit. It’s cinematic in a very mundane way. It creates a sense of "being there" that a single static image just can't replicate.
The Technical Backbone of the Layout
It looks messy, but the backend is incredibly rigid. The daily mail original format relies on a high-density grid. While many modern sites have moved to "responsive" designs that hide sidebars on mobile, the Mail’s mobile app and mobile web versions work tirelessly to keep that sense of "more, more, more."
- Infinite Scroll: You never really hit a footer.
- High-Contrast Text: Usually black on white, with heavy use of bolding within paragraphs to keep the eye moving.
- Anchor Tags: The site is heavily interlinked, ensuring that the "link juice" (as SEO nerds call it) flows through every corner of the domain.
This is why the site has a Domain Authority that makes most publishers weep. Every single article is a hub. Every photo is optimized. It’s a machine designed for retention.
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Dealing with the "White Space" Myth
Designers love white space. They think it’s elegant. The daily mail original format views white space as wasted real estate. If there’s an inch of screen not showing a headline, a photo, or an ad, it’s a failure. This creates a "frenetic" energy. It mimics the feeling of a crowded newsroom or a bustling city street. It’s loud. It’s exhausting. And it’s exactly why people stay on the site for so long—there is no "natural" place for your eyes to rest, so you just keep consuming.
The "Original" vs. The New Content
Lately, there’s been talk about the Mail modernizing. They’ve introduced "Mail+" and other subscription models. But if you look at the core of the site, the daily mail original format hasn't actually changed much in a decade. Why would it? It’s the most-visited English-language newspaper website in the world (competing closely with the New York Times, depending on the month).
The format is the brand. If you stripped away the red banner and the sidebar, it wouldn't be the Mail. It’s like the Coca-Cola recipe; you can tweak the packaging, but if you change the core formula, the fans will revolt. The "original" layout is a psychological trigger that tells the reader: "You are about to be entertained/outraged/informed in exactly the way you expect."
What Most People Get Wrong About the Mail's Success
People think the Mail is successful despite its cluttered layout. I’m telling you, it’s successful because of it. In an age of "clean" AI-generated content and sterile corporate blogs, the daily mail original format feels human. It feels like someone is shouting at you in a pub. It’s messy, it’s biased, it’s obsessed with the Kardashians, and it’s deeply, deeply engaging.
It also masters the "re-read." Because the articles are so long and the photos so numerous, you can look at the same story three times and see something new in the background of a photo or a detail in the 14th paragraph. That’s "dwell time," and Google loves dwell time more than almost any other metric.
Nuance in News Delivery
It’s easy to dismiss the format as "low-brow." But look at how they cover breaking news or political scandals. The daily mail original format allows them to dump a massive amount of primary source material—letters, screenshots, tweets, legal documents—directly into the flow of the article. They don’t just summarize; they show. This "evidence-heavy" approach (even if the "evidence" is a grainy photo of a politician's bin) gives the reader a sense of being the detective.
Actionable Takeaways for Content Creators
You don't have to turn your blog into a tabloid to learn from the daily mail original format. There are structural lessons here that apply to any kind of digital publishing.
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First, stop being afraid of length. If the content is interesting, people will scroll. The "short and sweet" rule of the early 2010s is dead. People want depth, or at least the illusion of depth through lots of visual stimuli.
Second, use the "Top-Down" information delivery. Don't hide the lead. Put the most important, juiciest bits in a summary at the top. It doesn't hurt your bounce rate; it actually qualifies your reader and encourages them to keep going for the details.
Third, embrace the sidebar. Most websites treat their sidebar as a place to put a "Sign up for my newsletter" box and then leave it. Use that space. Fill it with your best stuff. Make it a destination in itself.
How to Implement "Mail-Style" Formatting Safely
If you want to boost your own rankings using some of these techniques, start with your headers. Instead of a boring H2 like "Product Features," try something more descriptive and "Mail-esque" like "Why the New M3 Chip is Actually 30% Faster Than the Pro Model (And What It Means for Your Battery Life)."
Also, break up your text. The daily mail original format never lets a paragraph go on for too long without an image or a pull-quote. It’s about "eye-rest." Give the reader a reason to stop scrolling every 200 pixels.
The Future of the Layout
As we move further into the 2020s, and with 2026 just around the corner, the daily mail original format faces a challenge from AI-driven feeds. But AI feeds are often "too" perfect. They lack the grit and the "human" editorial voice that makes the Mail what it is. The "Sidebar of Shame" isn't just an algorithm; it's a person deciding which celebrity's divorce is more interesting today. That human element, wrapped in a chaotic, high-density layout, is why the format will likely outlive the minimalist trends that come and go every few years.
Honestly, the Mail's "original" look is a reminder that the internet doesn't have to be pretty to be effective. It just has to be interesting.
Next Steps for Content Strategy:
- Audit your current article structure. Are you using summary bullets at the top? If not, try adding them to your top five performing pages and monitor the "Time on Page" metric for 30 days.
- Experiment with "Mega-Headlines." Take a few upcoming posts and write headlines that are 15-20 words long. Use specific numbers and names rather than vague promises.
- Increase image density. Don't just use one "hero" image. Use "in-line" images that illustrate specific points within the text. Even simple screenshots or annotated diagrams can mimic the "visual storytelling" of the Mail.
- Re-evaluate your sidebar. If it's empty or filled with junk, replace it with a "Most Popular" or "Trending Now" feed that uses small, high-impact thumbnails.