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As a former Johnston Press employee, I have to say I'm not overly surprised by the falling share price.

They've initiatied a raft of takeovers in recent years, and I always thought they were spreading themselves too thinly.

Now the credit crunch has begun to bite, advertising revenues have fallen and the markets have begun to realise the same thing for themselves.

In the US, the Christian Science Monitor is already an online-only "paper", and the NY Times is in deep trouble.

Newsgathering by most papers seems to have declined to the extent of doing online searches, then recycling the results.

There doesn't seem to be much future for the print media.

Oldnat...

I agree... The Scotsman in particular has become very tedious to read...

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PJG1970

You have summed it all up nicely.
Except for the compulsory license fee the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ would be defunct as well.

What would really attract me would be an online Scottish "paper" which would allow me to identify the issues I want to read about, and carry both impartial news items about them, plus analysis articles from good journalists writing from different perspectives.

Obviously my preferences would start with Scottish politics, but there are others who would want a similar structure to allow them to select pop culture and related issues that I don't want even to appear on my radar!

Dougie,

This is from the Institute of Welsh Affairs website - a speech by Carolyn McCall of the Grauniad, which you may well already be aware of, where she refers to Emily Bell's description of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ as a 'benevolent dragon' "albeit one that can destroy entire villages with a careless swish of its tail."



Some food for thought here ? Although fear not, as having a local, devolved assembly can resolve all such issues...

And one of the Assembly Members puts her two penn'orth in as well..

#8 lordBeddGelert

A really difficult part of the solution is that Scotland and Wales have different political dynamics from the UK (though we also share in that dimension), and these dynamics are not properly represented.

The US has no "national" print media, and its regional papers are under significant threat.

The "Trust" concept is an interesting one, and might provide a solution for both our countries. However, such a trust would need to be politically balanced, as opposed to the Guardian's left-of-centre UK model.

Having written for both the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday - the 'rot'set in with the arrival of the brothers Barclay.

Over a period of time, respected 'wordsmiths' started leaving and the standard of journalism has dropped from that of a thought provoking and investigating broad sheet to the level of so many of the other parent company's weeklies.

'Reading the Scotsman is tedious' one blogger has commented ...YES - because of the lamentable standards of baby journalists, coupled with the fact that the management won't spend a PENNY on investigative work....

Within the next five years - the newspaper profession in Scotland will be DECIMATED... or worse

Anyone remember Business AM...

A highly informative online publication that was wonderfully irreverant.

How ironic that Douglas Fraser should lament the demise of the Scottish press when he has done so much to accelerate that decline. Mr Fraser is one of the reasons why I am no longer a regular Herald reader - the misleading headlines, the buried leads, the partial coverage and obligate recycling of Labour Party press releases hardly justify the designation 'quality press' or indeed its cover price. Give me a diverse press which challenges, questions, analyses and investigates all perspectives rather than simply replicating editorial bias. At one time, I would alternate between the Herald, the Scotsman, SoS and the Sunday Herald. At the moment, all seem to be in decline.

#8 lordBeddGelert

I note that the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust has now said this proposal will not go forward.

Check this out about ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Wales and their plans for more video on local websites..



Looks like the Newspapers are fighting back..

Oops...

Douglas I find the Tory bias of the local press awful. Let them go bankrupt (or at least eat cake).

In in the North-East recently the PandJ/EE (Press and Journal Evening Express) ran a sympathetic story about strike breaking by Mr Soutar of Stagecoach. Were I a Stagecoach employee would I by the PandJ/EE ?

These local papers only represent a strand of local opinion.

Douglas I find the Tory bias of the local press awful. Let them go bankrupt (or at least eat cake).

In in the North-East recently the P&J/EE ran a sympathetic story about strike breaking by Mr Soutar of Stagecoach. Were I a Stagecoach employee would I by the Press and Journal ?

These local papers only represent a strand of local opinion.

I worked on scotsman.com for many years. About three years ago, despite strong advice from staff, senior management in Johnston Press proceeded to trash the website.

The senior guys in charge of JP digital (then and probably now) are completely inept and it's no surprise that the shares have crashed.

I completely sympathise with you santabaws (post #18).

I was a reporter with Johnston Press for several years, and updating our paper's website was one of my many roles.

I used to use the Scotsman website - the archive in particular - when I was a student but, as you say, as soon as they took over they trashed it in favour of their more 'uniform' UK-wide web-template.

It destroyed the newspaper's unique online presence and replaced it with a template which was less than water-tight.

What bugged me most though was that the folk pushing these and other major changes (in Peterborough, where Johnston have their head office) just didn't have the foggiest idea how to run the news side of a paper - their backgrounds were all in advertising.

And that was all they thought about - to the detriment of everything else. Yes, advertising revenue is vitally important, but people don't buy a paper for the ads!

If you undermine the press side of things, all you do is shoot yourself in the foot, because readership plummets and that forces advetising rates down.

It's common sense but so many in the upper echelons of the industry seem to forget that simple rule far too often.

Douglas,

Newspapers will never go out of fashion....

~Dennis Junior~

Circulation of newspapers has been falling for a while now. In the fast moving era of technology, media businesses have to be able to adjust very quickly. There is no time for scheduled board meeting, which decide which way the company should go, decisions have to be made on the spot and they are better be right decisions. Consumers are no longer prepared to pay £1 for something which is available online. If we can buy online, we should be able to do the same with newspapers.

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Aaaah! Double talk!
Of all the newspapers still managing to hang on to readership the Aberdeen papers win the prize.

Tory bias ? You're having a laugh!
Or are you the B³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ balancing blogger?
You know the one they cite every time they are accused of bias -
" we get accusations of bias from all sides so we can't be!"
That one?
Or just a troll?
Or internet vermin?