Telegraph scoop sells papers

The Daily Telegraph sold 900,000 additional copies in the first two weeks it ran serialized reports of Parliament members' expense records, The New York Times reported. Unconfirmed reports indicate that The Telegraph paid $145,000 for the reports.

British newspapers sometimes give away CDs or DVDs in the hope that readers enticed by free copies of “Batman 26” might cast a passing glance at the headlines, too.

One newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, has reversed that approach, to spectacular effect. Instead of giving away a disk, it acquired one (or more) of them containing the expense records of members of Parliament.

As The Telegraph splashes tales of taxpayer-financed duck islands and moat-cleaning across its front pages, there is talk of a political revolution along the Thames. Some of the conventional wisdom of the news business has gone belly up, too.

More here.