By Hamish Mackay in the Scottish Review
The Daily Star’s circulation has fallen below 200,000 for the first time in its 43-year history. Press Gazette reports that the tabloid had an average daily readership of 197,998 in December, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures for national newspapers.
Press Gazette pointed out: ‘The figures show continuing print readership decline as the lowest the Daily Star’s circulation had gone during the first COVID-19 lockdown was 219,275 in April 2020. It follows Reach stablemate Sunday People’s circulation falling below 100,000 in November. In December, the Daily Star Sunday and Sunday People saw the biggest annual circulation drops of 20% and 19% respectively’.
The only paid-for newspaper to grow year-on-year was the Financial Times, which has upped the number of bulk copies given away for free since last year. However, it still fell 2% month-on-month with bulk copies, newsstand sales and subscriptions all down in December.
Based on the ABC figures, the top-selling UK national newspapers in December were the Daily Mail with a sale of 902,111 – down 10% year-on-year, and The Mail on Sunday which sold 787,761 copies – down 9% year-on-year.
I have received the ABC circulation figures in December for only three Scottish titles. And they don’t make for especially good reading. The Sunday Mail, at 73,048, was down 17% year-on-year; The Sunday Post, at 56,195, was down 18%; while the Daily Record fell by 14% to 75,871. I’m unable to provide circulation figures for the titles in The Sun, The Times and Daily Telegraph stables. They have all chosen to keep their ABC circulations private since the beginning of 2020. The Guardian and The Observer joined them in September 2021.
Press Gazette said the last ABC figures it had for these titles were: The Sun: 1,210,915 (March 2020); The Sun on Sunday: 1,013,777 (March 2020); The Sunday Times: 647,622 (March 2020); The Times: 365,880 (March 2020); Daily Telegraph: 317,817 (December 2019); Sunday Telegraph: 248,288 (December 2019); The Observer: 136,656 (July 2021) and The Guardian: 105,134 (July 2021).
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James Cook, who has been chief news correspondent and occasional presenter for The Nine on the fledgling BBC Scotland channel since 2019, is to replace Sarah Smith as Scotland editor for BBC News.
James, 44, who was educated at Forfar Academy, joined BBC Scotland in his 20s. He has presented many news and current affairs programmes including Good Morning Scotland and Reporting Scotland, and covered the lead up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum for the BBC News channel. He was also based in Los Angeles as a North America correspondent for the BBC for three years.
Richard Burgess, interim senior controller of BBC news content, said: ‘As well as being an excellent journalist, James also cares deeply about Scotland – its history, culture and politics – and has a strong commitment to our core BBC values of impartiality, accuracy and fairness. He has a clear vision for the Scotland editor role, knows what works on digital, and crucially, what matters in modern Scotland’.
Cook takes over from Sarah Smith who has been appointed as the BBC’s North America editor. She was on a salary of £185,000 in her Scotland editor role, according to Scottish news website Daily Business. Cook’s salary has not been disclosed.
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BBC Radio Scotland is serving up a special dish for rugby fans with a new breakfast show during the run of the Six Nations. Presented by Laura McGhie and Andy Burke, along with contributions from Tom English, the team set the scene from 10am until midday every Saturday morning during the tournament.
The Rugby Breakfast Show was launched in advance of the Scotland v England match on 5 February, which Scotland narrowly won 20-17. The concept follows on from the success of last year’s Euros Breakfast Show and is available on 810 MW and on the BBC Scotland Sport website.
The programme comes from the grassroots of the game and takes in live audiences in the social clubs of local rugby teams in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Dublin. It features a different comedian each week and one of Scotland’s most popular comics and former rugby player, Susie McCabe, joined the team for the launch show. There is also live music.
Tom English has been secured on a loan deal from the station’s Football Breakfast Show and presents his ‘Shot at Glory’ – a 90-second spot that pits guests against each other in a test of their rugby knowledge. Guests lined up include John Barclay, Brian Moore, Peter Wright, Dan Lydiate, Johnny Beattie and Ryan Wilson.
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Nothing sells like nostalgia. Pictured here are the winners of the Scottish Press Awards with the sponsor Sir Hugh Fraser back in 1985.
The Scottish Press Awards 2022 is now open for entries. There are 33 prizes at stake with the categories covering national, regional and online publications. Journalists and titles wishing to enter need to meet a 3 March deadline. The shortlists will be announced prior to the awards ceremony at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central on Wednesday 21 September.
The awards organiser, the Scottish Newspaper Society’s director, John McLellan, told me: ‘Scottish news publishers continue to innovate and digital audiences for high-quality journalism are being sustained despite enormous pressure throughout what has been another extraordinarily difficult year. Quality, independent Scottish journalism is as vital as ever in bringing the industry together. Last year’s event was a great success, and we are once again looking forward to gathering and celebrating all that’s good about Scottish journalism. There is a lot to celebrate, support and defend’.
More information can be found here.
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Last week, we reported that Channel 4 is ‘publicly-funded’. My apologies. This was incorrect. Channel 4 is one of the UK’s public service broadcasters. It is a publicly-owned, non-profit organisation that invests its income back into commissioning content. It receives no public money and is funded entirely through its commercial activity. Most of its income comes from TV and online advertising.
There are persistent rumours that Channel 4 could shortly be lined up for privatisation. According to a report in the Financial Times, the options would include an outright sale; a partial offloading of the UK Government’s stake; or a mutual ownership model.
Broadcaster Andrew Neil is said to be close to signing a deal with Channel 4 to front a weekly political analysis show. Daily Business reports: ‘The former Sunday Times and BBC journalist is in discussions with director of programmes Ian Katz and director of news and current affairs Louisa Compton following his fall-out with GB News, according to trade publication Broadcast. Talks with Channel 4 are said to be focused on a Sunday evening slot for the show, possibly to follow the 6.30pm news bulletin, currently watched by 600,000 viewers. Sunday mornings have been ruled out to avoid a clash with political programmes on the BBC and Sky. Scheduling a programme for Sunday evening, however, would enable Neil to further analyse whatever emerges from these shows’.
Neil’s spell at GB News, where he was also chairman, proved an unhappy experience. The audience for his nightly news programme quickly peaked at 300,000 – outperforming the BBC and Sky. However, the station was apparently plagued with production errors and disputes that led to his departure after just three months.
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Sky News political correspondent, Kate McCann, has been hired as political editor.
TalkTV, Rupert Murdoch’s latest entry to the UK media scene, is expected to launch any day soon. The new channel has recruited Tom Newton Dunn, Times Radio’s chief political commentator and the former political editor of The Sun, to host a nightly 60-minute prime time news programme on Mondays to Fridays. And Sky News political correspondent, Kate McCann, has been hired as political editor. Before joining Sky in 2018, Kate was senior political correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and political correspondent of The Sun.
Industry sources report that the new channel is planning to air a satirical news programme along the lines of the BBC’s Have I Got News For You and is currently recruiting staff for it.
TalkTV, part of the UK News stable, has already hired Piers Morgan as a presenter on a reputed £50m contract over three years, and several of his former colleagues at ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme. It will feature hourly news bulletins, sports and entertainment shows, as well as current affairs, debate, opinion and documentaries. It will use people and programming from across the News UK stable including The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, Times Radio, Talkradio, Talksport and Virgin Radio.
News UK chief executive Rebekah Brooks said: ‘We are committed to providing choice for television and streaming viewers and bringing the best of our journalism to the screen. Taking advantage of modern technology, we can produce high-quality shows at low cost’.
And The National?
Conspicuously absent from your page.