The Death of Ink

Another sign of the times: every single employee of the Glasgow Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times was sacked today and told to reapply for their jobs (on changed  - that is, less favourable - terms and conditions of course) if they hope to have some sort of a future in newspapers. Or at least at the Herald Group. Early indications are that the company wants to cut the workforce by something like 20%.

But journalists and readers alike should not fret:

Managing director Tim Blott said: "We are creating an efficient operation fit for the 21st Century which will provide even more compelling and unique content for readers of all three titles and our websites.

"We are committed to producing vibrant and relevant newspapers and websites and see a bright future for The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times and their digital versions. 

Why should anyone doubt this?

Standard disclaimer: newspapers have, generally speaking, been lucky over the years. Or rather, there are plenty of other industries and trades that have seen plenty of this sort of stuff before. So there ought not to be too much special pleading from hacks, but, still, this is sad, depressing, even infuriating stuff.

 

Comments

[MattF]

Maybe the publishers should take a look at the case of Circuit City (now bankrupt)-- where the management fired all of most productive long-term employees because their salaries were too high.

[Chris]

Alex- Check out this map of newspaper layoffs:

http://graphicdesignr.net/papercuts/

Happy days!

[dearieme]

Ah, a newspaper man who says "more...unique": brilliant. And he doesn't seem to understand modern coded speech - are there enough black journalists in Glasgow to make the papers "vibrant"? He thinks that "relevant" can usefully dangle without a referrant - how very 1960s. Tit!

[ally]

Ow.

I also note that Johnston Group, who own the Scotsman and 300-odd other papers around the UK, are currently trading at about 6.5p rather than the 2.60-odd they were worth when they bought the Scotsman a couple of years back. So you can buy 300 newspapers for 40 million quid (should you have a mind to do so).

[Rab o' Ruglen]

While I have every sympathy for those who find themselves in employment difficulties through no fault of their own I cannot say I have any sympathy for the Scottish print medium whatsoever. If you are looking for an example of a people less well served by its press than Scotland's, you have to go to totalitarian states to find it.

It is incredible that when the Independence movement has reached the stage of forming a government, all-be-it a minority one, that every single one of Scotland's public prints is pro-Union. Sometimes vitriolically so. These instruments in the main for the propagation of right-wing propaganda and the Union, supposedly in support of free market forces, seem remarkably resistant to the idea that they might not be able to make a profit indefinately out of forcing on their readers a point of view with which they do not concur.

Having myself stopped buying daily papers a long time ago for that very reason, I take some pleasure at the difficulties facing the Scotsman and the Herald and their like and say "Good Riddance". An industry facing increasing competition from other media which then aggraveates its position by systematically alienating a large section of its customers deserves all it gets.