Local newspaper closure tally since 2005 | Scotsman editor resigns
Plus Mill Media names the hires for its upcoming Glasgow launch
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Wednesday 14 August, 2024.
Press Gazette today updates our tally for local newspaper closures in the UK which are edging towards a total of 300 since 2005.
There have been a few print launches since then, and lots of digital ones. But the undeniable picture is one of major decline.
Separately we have looked into published accounts of the three companies which dominate UK local news publishing (Reach, Newsquest and National World) and found they employ around 3,000 journalists today compared with 9,000 in 2007 (before the economic crash of 2008).
We've also charted online local news publishers in London, Wales and Scotland to find comparatively few local council areas (at the county or city level) with no coverage at all. But in many places community-run titles and non-profits, run as labours of love, are filling in the gaps.
Many local newspapers continue, but as hollowed out shells.
My local National World title costs £1.70. Most of the page leads are "contributed reports", press releases printed verbatim. It is information, but it is the opposite of news (if you define that as information which someone wants to suppress).
Meanwhile, cuts continue at Edinburgh-based daily The Scotsman where editor Neil McIntosh has resigned and one in four journalists are at risk of redundancy. In 2005 Scotsman Publications employed some 322 editorial staff. I would be surprised if today it employs more than a quarter of that total under current owners National World.
Meanwhile Mill Media has recruited two staff to launch a Substack-based newsletter for Glasgow. The Manchester-based publisher is looking to grow its staff to 22 and offers regular investigations and longer reads for its email subscribers.
New from Press Gazette
UK local newspaper closures update: 293 now gone since 2005
Four titles were launched in print between the end of July 2022 and the start of August 2024. The outlook was better for local digital outlets, with 20 launches outweighing 15 closures over the past two years.
Mill Media hires Novara’s Moya Lothian-McLean for new Glasgow title
The expansion is funded out of a 2023 fundraising round that won £350,000 from investors including CNN chief executive Mark Thompson and Axios publisher Nicholas Johnston.
Neil McIntosh resigns as Scotsman editor amid newsroom redundancies
An email to Scotsman staff said McIntosh, a former news executive at The Guardian, BBC and Wall Street Journal, has resigned “to pursue a portfolio career”.
Veteran foreign reporter in fight for justice over medical trial injuries
A veteran UK foreign correspondent says he is stranded in Australia after receiving life-changing injuries as a result of being “tricked” into taking part in a medical trial.
News in brief
The New York Times says its editorial board will no longer make endorsements in New York elections such as for governor or mayor, although it will still endorse presidential candidates. It has made an endorsement in every mayoral election since 1897. (The New York Times)
Buzzfeed has seen its first quarter of year-over-year growth in programmatic revenue since Q1 2022, although overall ad revenue was down 19%. Chief executive Jonah Peretti claimed "the strategic and organisational changes we have made... are beginning to pay off". (The Hollywood Reporter)
Photojournalist Joel Goodman says he will resist a police production order for images taken at the recent rioting because if he hands his work over then next time people will be "twice as threatening and not just to me but to everyone else". (The Yorkshire Post)
The Kamala Harris campaign has edited the text of headlines and descriptions linking to real news articles in Google search ads to make it look like publishers including The Guardian, Reuters and CBS News are "on her side", according to Axios.
Our latest podcast
Bonnier News CEO on power of bundles and personalisation
Sweden’s biggest news publisher Bonnier News has more than tripled profits in the past eight years and doubled revenue.
It now believes a subscription bundle, putting together all of its Swedish brands and harnessing AI to better personalise what users see, will be the way forward for continued revenue growth.
Bonnier News chief executive Anders Eriksson told Press Gazette UK editor Charlotte Tobitt about the business transformation he has overseen and the internal culture change needed to do so, why Nordic countries are ahead on subscriptions, and the thinking behind the bundle subscription strategy.
Previously on Press Gazette
Scotsman staff lament ‘death of a thousand cuts’: See newsroom letter to HR in full
Two news publishers have 20m+ Instagram followers: Leading UK and US titles ranked
Fastest-growing news publishers on Tiktok since start of 2023 revealed
National World’s Manchester site in strategy shift to ‘find place’ in crowded market
BBC journalist received ‘defamatory and highly personal attacks’ over ‘out of context’ riot clip
Press Gazette live
Our flagship event the Future of Media Technology Conference and Awards takes place on 12 September on the Hilton Bankside hotel in London. It provides publishers with a masterclass on the big technology themes impacting our business and is also an unrivalled networking opportunity.
Full agenda and booking details here.
Interesting/concerning that most of the new online launches are *not* in parts of the country that saw online title closures over the past two years.
A few might be considered replacements: Wiltshire Live closed, but The Ink (Swindon) launched, Herts Live closed, but St Albans Times launched. And Staffordshire Live closed, but Stoke-on-Trent Lead launched, again covering part of the county.
The upside is that there are possibly still quite big gaps in the news market in the 10 or so online title closure areas that didn't get replacements, e.g. Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Sussex
I hope some journalists there seize the chance!