Media fascination with Diana unabated 10 years on

By Anna Tomforde Aug 31, 2007, 13:09 GMT

Remembrance notes and flowers from well-wishers are left at the gates to the late Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London, Britain, 30 August 2007. 31 August marks the 10th anniversary since Princess Diana\'s death when she was killed in a car accident in Paris. Thousands of well-wishers are expected to turn out to pay their respects to the Princess. EPA/ANDY RAIN

London - 'I hope you are not putting me on the cover to sell more copies,' says the speech bubble on the cover of this week's Private Eye satirical magazine featuring a photograph of a radiant Princess Diana.

Ten years after she died, Diana, Princess of Wales, remains one of the world's great cover stars, selling thousands of books, newspapers and magazines.

Ahead of a memorial service to mark the decade of her death Friday, British newspapers and magazines have retold the story of her tragic life - and death - and published commemorative issues reprinting some of the articles written about her in 1997.

The Sun newspaper Thursday kicked off its three-page special, running over the next three days, with 'Diana's last plea to the world' - a handwritten letter in which she pledged to work tirelessly for 'needlessly maimed' landmine victims in Bosnia.

'Diana lived and died by the media. They made her a goddess: that was her destruction,' wrote the Financial Times this week.

William Deedes, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph, who accompanied Diana on her landmine campaigns in Africa and Bosnia, described her before his recent death as 'an injured angel, who would sometimes sin...'

An analysis of articles in British newspapers and magazines over the past 10 years has shown that Diana still regularly attracts more than 8,000 mentions a year.

Already this year, and with an inevitable rise to come, there have been over 7,000 mentions, echoing the boom in media coverage on the fifth anniversary of her death in 2002.

In that year, there were more than 12,000 articles - approaching the 15,000-plus published in 1997.

'Princess Diana's media appeal has endured beyond that of any other public figure,' said Fergus Hampton, managing director of Millward Brown Precis, a research company which monitors media coverage.

The count has been boosted by the continuing speculation over the cause of her death, various inquiries and the media profile of her two sons, William and Harry.

'Their careers, love affairs and nightlife antics absorb the nation as did their mother's heartache, capacity for empathy and globalized glamour,' commented the Spectator magazine.

Britain's vociferous tabloid press has not denied that, in some cases, the enduring fascination with Diana has secured their survival.

'My job is to produce newspapers that people want to read and I can tell you people want to read about the Diana conspiracy because the figures tell me that they do,' said Peter Hill, editor of the Daily Express.

Sally Cartwright, editor of Hello magazine, reported a 20-per cent boost in sales of two issues this summer which featured Diana.

According to Cartwright, Diana and the media were in a 'symbiotic relationship.'

'She used the media to put her case across, and we used her to sell millions and millions of magazines and newspapers.'

'No-one sold magazines and newspapers like Diana. No-one since has had the same effect, and no-one has replaced her,' Cartwright said.