Page 16 - Newspaper of the Future Case Study

Proposed Sale of

The Scotsman ?

In January 2016, JP’s editorial
staff were warned in a
company-wide memo to brace
themselves for more job cuts.
It was announced that nearly
100 editorial jobs were to be
cut by JP in its latest round of
cuts with Scotland and
Northern Ireland being the
worst hit with some 32 jobs at

risk in Scotland, up to 13 in Northern Ireland, ten in the North East and eight
in the North West.

This announcement came on the back of rumors that JP were trying to sell The
Scotsman for £10 million. In August 2009 Scotsman Publishing was estimated
to be worth around £40million. By January 2016 it was estimated to be worth
between £4 million (taking into consideration the pension fund liabilities) and
£10 million a substantial drop from the £160 million JP paid for it some ten
years earlier.

Government attitude had also crystalised over this period as the SNP
Government made it clear that it saw the regional publishers as an important
part of its local devolution helping the regional publishers by steps such as
relief on business rates and ensuring that public notices continue in print.
th
Furthermore on 17 February, 2016 it presented a Policy Document feeding
into the BBC’s charter renewal process, scheduled for later in the year, calling
for the setting up of a Scottish BBC which would be a semi-autonomous
Scottish board to be created to hold BBC Scotland to account. The board
would itself be accountable to the Scottish Parliament.