At the height of its power, Blair's media machine dominated the media - placing articles in the Telegraph designed to prove that New Labour was tough on defence, while giving stories to the Guardian detailing anti-poverty measures. The Conservative leadership was never likely to win similar influence. Its broad aim, however, was similar: to neutralise media outlets unfriendly to it, to win over the Murdoch stable, and to retain the support of the Telegraph/Mail.
Winning the endorsements of the Sun, Times, London Evening Standard, Economist and Financial Times were significant successes. The Sun's early endorsement was particularly important. From its October 2009 abandonment of Labour until polling day it became a non-stop champion of a change of government.
The wooing of The Guardian was less successful. The Guardian is important because it is the newspaper of 'the ideas class' - read by the BBC, the dominant force in UK media. At times in early 2010 the BBC seemed to closely follow The Guardian's news agenda - particularly in a five day obsession with the tax status of Lord Ashcroft. From the summer of 2009 until polling day The Guardian regularly ran damning front page attacks on the Tories. Cameron's charm offensive which included regular exclusives and op-eds did not transform the newspaper of the ideas class but the attacks were neither as strong nor frequent. The Telegraph/Mail "Tory Press" have remained hostile, though for different reasons. Neither can be relied upon to support a Cameron Government automatically. The Daily Mail, especially, is uncomfortable with modernisation, and Cameron has yielded little ground to them. Cameron won the Tory leadership in 2005 without the support of the right-wing press and has always regarded broadcast media as the real opinion-shapers in the land.