A change of ownership at The Scotsman titles must signal a strategy beyond cutbacks, says STEVE SAMPSON
The Scotsman is under new management, its fifth owner in two decades. Ireland-based Media Concierge acquired the parent company for £60 million following falling out with the management led by former Mirror Group CEO David Montgomery and his sidekick, the former Daily Record CEO Mark Hollinshead.
New owner Malcolm Denmark now has 100 regional titles under his stewardship including The Yorkshire Post, The Sheffield Star and The Derry Journal. So how does he take a jar full of tadpoles and make them grow?
At first glance, it’s like climbing the North Face of the Eiger in wellies. Local papers especially are screwed, their rivers of gold of property, sits vac and motoring adverts, have long since migrated online. In the last 20 years 300 local newspapers in the UK have closed. Around two in every three reporting jobs have gone. The Scotsman‘s print circulation is so pitifully low it is on first name terms with its readers.
Size matters and digital subscriptions are key. The Daily Telegraph with over 1 million paying subscribers changed hands a fortnight ago for £500m. The Guardian has subscription revenues of over £100m. Murdoch’s Times and Sunday Times are firmly profitable with 700,000 subscribers after years of loss making.
Mr Denmark isn’t in that big stakes game. Newsquest – owner of The Herald – trumpeted 100,000 subscribers a few months back, including 40,000 for its Scottish titles, on the back of a heavily discounted offer. God bless them, but tadpole, frog, muddy puddle springs to mind.
So Mr Denmark’s in-tray is the same as Monty’s. Where is the growth coming from and how much will it cost? At least the company is now private – no City types poking around the share price. Whatever Monty & Co are accused of, they bought the business for £10m with a credit card and turned it into something of value. It makes a profit. Some may say by pitiless cut-backs, reducing once great titles like The Scotsman to scratchings. But that was yesterday.
Denmark will take cold comfort from his rivals one bed down in the same emergency ward. Jim Mullen, the now departed CEO of Daily Record owner Reach, gave the group five years of survival. That was nearly 18 months ago.
I was a director there watching London squeeze the pips out of the lemon. Just fill up the binliner with your good Scottish money, send it south. I used to wonder why they didn’t have anyone of editorial significance on the PLC board. I thought it was an oversight. Anything but – last thing they wanted was some argumentative journalist making demands. Like investing in the titles, widening their appeal.
Will The Scotsman turn around? We had better hope so. Stop cutting editorial staff for one. Facebook groups have more loyal followers than their local rags and are far more radical in their views. Get the creatives together, promise them no more cutbacks. Build a credible strategy of growth especially in premium video content. What I have seen so far doesn’t cut it.
If you open the pages of The Scotsman you believe in its journalism. To inform and entertain you. To keep those sub-standard politicians – laughingly in power – to account. Given the state of our leaders, their reporting has never been more important.
Steve Sampson is a former Assistant, Northern and Scottish Editor of The Sun newspaper, and a Director of Trinity Mirror publications. He was a launch presenter of Radio5 Live, founder of First Press Publishing and contributes to the BBC. He is an investor/owner across a series of digital initiatives, and a media adviser. He lists “Diplomacy” as a speciality.
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