Next to nothing has been mentioned in the Scottish blogosphere about the demise of the Scottish edition of the Sunday Times. On the odd occasion I purchase a Sunday newspaper it's usually the Sunday Times but it shows in the circulation figures that I don't buy it often enough. There has been a 10.6 fall in circulation from 71,719 to 64,092 year on year in the Bureau of Circulation posted last month.
Now it will be produced from England, with regionalised pages, ending what had been a stand-alone Scottish edition since it first printed in 1988.
Along with other journalists Joan McAlpine is facing redundancy. I would like to pay my own tribute to Joan's fluent and honest opinions which will be sadly missed even though we are fortunate enough to read her blog writings. A woman of her enviable talent will certainly not be on the market for long as journalists of her ability, (or columnists as she referred to herself in the Times), are few and far between.
Another Scottish newspaper bites the dust. Surely the demise of the Scottish Times as we know it has nothing to do with the Times shortly putting much of their online content behind a paywall. Surely not.
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12 comments:
I assume Labour decided to ban it in Scotland, Subrosa?
At the end of the day, printed media is a dying sector. Regardless if it comes from Scotland or not!
It wouldn't surprise me in the least OR. :)
It is Rab although the Scottish ST was good value for money compared with the SoS and SH these days.
That's a pity, but to be honest it isn't a surprise. How many people who use the internet also regularly buy newspapers?
I don't have a clue Mrs R, but if I'm anything to go by then it's only a few.
Of course many people like the 'feel' of a newspaper just as I like books. I doubt if I could ever sit here reading a book. It wouldn't be the same experience as sitting quietly somewhere turning pages.
Typed a bit of a long-winded reply. Suffice to say, I work in the newspaper industry and there are serious problems and it's likely to continue like this.
At some point the other Scottish editions of the likes of the Mail, Express and so on will close down, or at least decimate their staffing up here.
Lots of factors, but a major one is the BBC and it's bloated, no need to make money, news site. So like everything else, the biggest problem is too much state intrusion.
We'll be down to the redtops shortly Shug I suppose.
There's talk here of the local rag stopping as the circulation is falling and the younger generation don't buy it. Most of us older folks do, just out of loyalty. It's nicknamed the 'Three Minute Silence' because it has such little content.
I hope you're right about Joan McAlpine, but I don't see another Scottish paper taking her on....
wouldn't mind being wrong on that one though.
Will there be a Scottish paper left for any journalist to work with muddypaws? Sadly I think, in a few years time, they will be extinct.
On a positive note, there are some quite interesting digital models that the industry is looking too.
Obviously these will have a crushing effect on staff numbers, but the idea of your local paper moving online only, possibly ran from laptops in anything from a small office to - seriously - a coffee shop or bar, with maybe three journalists and two sales staff is being investigated. This model is in use in the Czech Republic and in quite a few places in the states.
Our own tests have shown that there is a market for subscription model digital services, although the cost to install a paywall is so high as to make it undesirable at the moment. The company I work for publishes a core of 19 titles in Scotland along with a few freesheets. We're investigating more localisation instead of less at the moment. Standalone nationals are probably finished.
Shug, that's an exciting concept. Here we have a local paper which is a 'branch' of a county paper. It is reasonably respected as I've said but the content depends upon the local community informing the parent newspaper. That often isn't easy as they are not the most communicative, especially with those who have little understanding of newspapers.
The online version gives just a few articles which is understandable, as they want people to purchase the paper. Also it never publishes photographs and in small communities it's important to some to see 'who's in the paper this week'.
Do keep me informed of events please.
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