By Bill Heaney
Sales of the Lennox Herald are plummeting fast as national publisher Reach plc has announced what it claims is “a small number” of redundancies at its Scottish titles, which include the oldest newspaper in Dunbartonshire, despite a management pledge of no further job losses this year.
The staff numbers at the Lennox Herald, which was once locally owned and printed and published by Bennet and Thomson in Church Street in premises between Dumbarton Sheriff Court and the Burgh Hall, amount to just two.
These are an editor and one reporter who operate out of the Daily Record office in Glasgow while their local office in Dumbarton High Street has closed and the circulation has slumped from around 14,000 to just over 1,000. The newspaper had a household penetration figure of 78 per cent at one point.
Daily Record editor and Reach Scotland editor-in-chief David Dick, right, set out plans for a restructure of what’s left of the business at some of its regional titles, including the Lennox, in an email to staff last week.
The proposals also involve the merger of the Sunday Mail team into a seven-day operation with the Record and coincide with the departure of the Mail’s editor, Lorna Hughes, pictured left.
One industry journal is reporting that it understands that the number of people leaving the Scottish regional titles will be in single digits, and that there are no corresponding cutbacks affecting local titles in England.
However, in January, the group’s chief executive Jim Mullen issued what was widely interpreted as a pledge of no more job cuts following the pre-Christmas restructure a year ago which saw 320 editorial jobs lost.
Mr Mullen said at the time that “the teams we have starting the year are those that I, and my ExCo team, plan to be continuing this journey by the end of the year.”
David Dick’s e mail stated: “We have announced some changes to the structure of our Scottish team today. Those colleagues most affected by these changes have all been spoken to and I want to give the wider team an update on these developments.
“The biggest change will be seen across the regional titles which continue to be adversely affected by changing reader habits and falling circulations.
“This has had a serious impact on the overall profitability of our regional papers and, in order to safeguard their immediate future, it has become necessary to propose a restructure of the team to ensure we are operating in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
“On the national side of the business, we plan to merge the Sunday Mail team into a wider seven-day operation across our national titles.
“Unfortunately, these changes mean a small number of roles have been placed at risk of redundancy and the people affected have now entered a consultation process.
“This is a difficult time for everyone in our team and I hope you can all support your colleagues, as we go through this process.”
Sadly the Lennox, like many other papers, is on the way out.
The medium of communication has changed. People prefer the phone, the tablet, the computer as opposed to papyrus. But it is the medium that has changed. The internet and the immediacy of it is one thing. But journalism and the presentation of news, or stories, or pieces of interest has not changed. People still want that.
In the old days the Lennox used to have pages of readers letters. Letters often had to be held over. And today something similar is done with blogging. People like to contribute, to comment, and it is in this that a big trick has been missed. Certainly with local news.
What if a local news outlet properly funded, properly staffed, was hosted on the internet. The Scottish Government are prepared to give millions of pounds to a property developer to create seasonal no fixed hours low wage jobs. But what if they provided start up funding to locally owned digital press..
Take this particular journal funded and run by an old hand in the press industry. What if he was part of a new set up, where funding was made available to take on some trainee staff who could both work and attend college undertaking journalism qualification. What if the statutory notices that need to be published by the local council were hosted on the local community newspaper. Indeed, the local authority I understand currently, in these cash strapped times, spends around a million pounds on communications and publicity.
Freed of the necessity to produce deadwood copies a truly local properly funded, both by start up grant, training grant, advertising revenue could i believe be a success. In Skye there is a paper called the West Highland Free Press. Started by Brian Wilson, for those who can remember him, the paper is still on the go, doing well in circulation and with good content. There is also a Skye radio that is doing very well too. Both rooted in community, rooted in quality, they work.
The Reach Plc’s and so many of the rest are in the business of making money managing decline. That is what has happened to the Lennox. Circulation of paper print goes down, advertising revenue goes down, staff go down, content goes down, whilst the price goes up and up.
As a society we need to decide if we want journalism. I think we do. The British State does too, or at least what they want, do to hence the BBC licence fee. That the electronic medium is ubiquitous, there should be support to getting a good local ” press ” back up and running. It can’t be left to the managed decline of the corporates.