The enormous job cuts announced at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail are not in the slightest bit surprising.
In fact, get ready for more, with strong rumours predicting the imminent demise of another newspaper.
Scotland’s newspapers are dying. Soon they will be gone. Their circulations are plummeting because they’re simply not good enough. This is no reflection on the battered survivors clinging to their jobs in Scotland’s empty newsrooms. There are only so many bricks they can make from dwindling amounts of straw.
I say this with deep sadness. I started my career as a Daily Record trainee (though I spent that entire time seconded to the Mirror in London). I spent 12 years working for the poor, lost Scotsman, a paper for which I still hold deep affection – drops of North Bridge ink still swim somewhere in my veins.
At several stages, I’ve been offered jobs on London “nationals”. But I’ve always chosen to stay in Scotland because I believe in the importance of journalism to our nation. I also believe that Scottish journalists are the best in the world, which is why we populate newsrooms everywhere.
The problem lies with who owns our national titles. But the problem is not just that they’re absentee landlords or greedy conglomerates. It’s that they don’t know what they’re doing. That they flail around, cutting costs in their failing products in a desperate attempt to keep the share price up.
The newspaper model is broken. It has been for years. Selling one-size-fits-all papers packed with generic, cheap content simply doesn’t work any more. Newspapers have been so focused on advertisers and shareholders that they have lost sight of the people who really matter: the readers. Further, the web has been around for 20 years and newspaper companies have still not worked out how to use it.
Now, they’re reaping the whirlwind. And Scotland is about to enter a crucial decision-making period with a maimed and crippled media, incapable of properly enabling the debate we need to have.
The Caledonian Mercury, imperfect as it is, is an attempt by journalists to do something about that.
As regular readers will have noticed, we’re a million miles away from truly being a paper of record. Our website’s a bag of spanners. We have only a handful of writers, covering an eclectic selection of topics. And our copyflow is haphazard.
But at least we’re trying.
The Caley Merc is a statement of belief in quality Scottish journalism, an act of faith and a line in the sand. We have proved our commitment to in-depth, independent journalism – and to being an honest broker for all the voices of Scotland
We have no backers. We are in nobody’s pocket. There is no editorial line.
While I am open about my own political beliefs, I make no attempt whatsoever to influence our writers. I’ve seen too many fine journalists forced out because their political views did not fit with the “line”. I believe that’s an insult to the reader. If I wanted to indulge in ruthless propaganda I’d get a well-paid job in PR.
We are committed to intelligent Scottish journalism. We want to build a new media for a new Scotland – and turn our embryonic publication into a world-class publication that uses the full power of the internet.
We have not got there yet. But we will. With your help.
We plan to relaunch the Caledonian Mercury in the very near future, with a better site, more writers and a wider range of services. We aim to plug the gap in our national conversation being left by the dying mainstream media.
We do not want to repeat the mistakes of traditional papers. We do not want to commit ourselves to unrealistic profit margins. We do not want to be at the beck and call of advertisers. And we do not want to be under any obligation to a wealthy proprietor. We want to rebuild the contract between newspaper and reader without any interference.
To fund our relaunch we will be asking our readers – and all those interested in the survival of Scottish journalism – to become “founders” of the Caledonian Mercury. We have had a great deal of success with our donations scheme. We now want to expand that concept.
Why should people give the Caley Merc money? Well, a healthy democracy needs a healthy press. We can all sit back and watch the Scottish media go gentle into that good night – and leave discussion of our constitutional future to the Daily Mail and the BBC.
Or we can do something about it.
If you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to let rip.
Stewart Kirkpatrick
Editor, The Caledonian Mercury
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