1.
There’s some heartening news on the media front from the Western Isles. It looks as if what was a very ailing Stornoway Gazette weekly newspaper could be well on the road to recovery.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) reports that the bilingual weekly, with a new and hugely enthusiastic editorial team at the helm, has topped the latest circulation charts for UK weekly titles, with an 18% increase in sales last year compared to 2020.
This meant that circulation rose from an average weekly sale of 2,292 copies to 2,698. Now this may not appear to be any big deal. However, that 18% increase in sales as the new team bedded in was an excellent achievement. It bodes well for the future of a newspaper which looked as if it could be heading for closure just 12 months ago.
Next week, I shall be taking an in-depth look at the UK’s weekly newspaper market, and especially some 60 Scottish weekly titles. Many of those titles have relatively small circulations and depend on high cover prices and advertising revenue to remain viable. You will be surprised at just how small the circulations of numerous Scottish weekly newspapers are. This is brought about by a number of factors including increasing competition from online news websites, and, more recently, the impact of the two-year COVID-19 pandemic on sales.
The Stornoway Gazette’s circulation success story comes hot on the heels of it winning the Newspaper of the Year accolade in the Highlands and Islands Media Awards. The circulation revival for the Gazette comes after its publisher, JPIMedia, installed Murray MacLeod and Brian Wilson as joint editors early in 2021, and Eric Mackinnon returned to his former newspaper as sports editor. The Gazette was the only totally paid-for UK regional weekly title to post a sales increase for last year.
2.
While most UK regional daily newspapers report their circulation figures every six months, a number of JPIMedia and Reach plc titles now report annually – including two Scottish titles.
The circulation of the JPIMedia-owned Edinburgh Evening News fell 15% last year compared to 2020, with sales dropping from 10,618 to 8,977 copies. Its stablemate, Scotland on Sunday, saw its circulation falling by 14% last year, from 6,843 to 5,881.
Among English and Welsh daily titles, the Cardiff-based Western Mail fell by 15% to 7,177 copies; the Daily Post (North Wales) was down 12% to 12,478; the Grimsby Telegraph fell 15% to 7,753; the Sunderland Echo was down 12% to 5,662, and the Western Daily Press was down 17% to 7,647.
3.
Scottish media group DC Thomson has received 12 nominations for the Publisher Podcast Awards 2022, which feature the best podcasts in the UK publishing and media industry. Archant, JPIMedia and Reach plc have also received multiple nominations for their podcasts. The winners will be announced in London on 27 April.
Energy Voice – Out Loud, the podcast of DC Thomson’s Energy Voice title, features on four shortlists â Best Commercial Strategy, Best B2B Podcast, Best Limited Series and Best Sponsored and Branded Podcast. And the Dundee media group’s Walk to Wellbeing podcast, in which well-known folk share their favourite walks, is shortlisted in three categories: Best Commercial Strategy, Best Podcast Launch and Best Health and Wellbeing Podcast.
A number of the shortlisted podcasts are part of Laudable – a Google-funded project aimed at helping Reach plc and JPIMedia turn podcasts and other audio content into a sustainable revenue stream.
The full shortlist can be found here.
4.
There is only one word which does justice to the coverage by the British broadcasting companies and our newspapers of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: exemplary.
Day after day, our media outlets have brought the horror of war to our homes in an understandable and reasonably dispassionate fashion, despite all sorts of obstacles. As a news junkie, I have been transfixed by it all and hugely saddened as I absorb the coverage on a 24-hours-a-day basis.
The BBC has been forced to abandon reporting from within Russia after Moscow passed draconian new censorship laws which could see people jailed for up to 15 years for publishing ‘fake news’ about the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. However, the BBC News service in Russian continues to operate from outside Russia.
The Scottish Daily Mail (SDM) reported: ‘The information war being waged by the Kremlin intensified [yesterday] as it appeared to have blocked the BBC’s English language website as well as its Russian language site. Both have seen a huge surge in traffic since the start of the war in Ukraine. The corporation responded by putting detailed advice on social media on how to use circumvention tools, including the dark web, to access BBC News’.
The SDM ventured that Russia’s lower house of parliament â the Duma â introduced the new criminal legislation because of the Kremlin’s determination that the invasion should not be described as a war but as a ‘special military operation’.
The first British media casualty of the war was Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent of Sky News. He was hit by a bullet in his lower back after he and four journalistic colleagues were ambushed in their car by what they were later told was a ‘saboteur Russian reconnaissance squad’. Two bullets also hit camera operator Richie Mockler in his body armour before the group managed to escape. The Sky News crew is now back in the UK.
Meantime, the Daily Mail has splendidly risen to the challenge of helping stricken Ukrainian families by launching the Mail Force’s Ukrainian appeal â proving to be the fastest newspaper fundraiser in world history. The Daily Mail General Trust’s (DMGT) chairman, Lord Rothermere, launched the appeal with a £500,000 donation. For details on giving to the appeal, please visit: www.mymail.co.uk/ukraine.
Newsquest’s The Herald on Sunday ran a front-page headline in Ukrainian as part of the regional press show of support for the besieged nation â splashing on the headline ‘Slava Ukraini’ in solidarity with Ukrainians. Translated, the phrase means ‘Glory to Ukraine’ and was accompanied by a quote from former US President, John F Kennedy, at the dawn of the Cold War. That memorable full quote reads: ‘We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty’.
Newspaper titles have rallied behind Ukraine in numerous ways, including displaying images of Ukrainian flags on their front pages and social media channels. And Dundee’s The Courier went a step further, changing its masthead to the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian national flag.
The BBC’s Clive Myrie has managed to leave the country after his impressive stint anchoring news bulletins from bunkers and hotel roofs in Kyiv. But more than 50 UK journalists remain in Ukraine. A similar number are in the country reporting for US outlets.
5.
ITV had a spectacularly successful night at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Television Journalism Awards 2022, winning nine awards across the 19 competitive sections. These included the Breaking News, Scoop of the Year and News Coverage: International categories. Good Morning Britain’s Noel Phillips won the Young Talent of the Year title and the ubiquitous Robert Moore triumphed in the Network Journalist of the Year category.
The awards ceremony, sponsored by Wolftech and staged at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, was hosted by Cathy Newman, of Channel 4 News.
Sky News and the BBC notched up three wins apiece. Sky News won the prestigious News Channel of the Year award; the News Technology category for Climate Live; and the Camera Operator of the Year award went to the broadcaster’s Dean Massey, who is an RTS bursary alumni. The BBC’s three awards were won for News Coverage: Home; Network Interview of the Year for Dominic Cummings: The Interview for BBC News; and BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team triumphed in the Nations and Regions Current Affairs category â one of two awards for Scotland.
Kathryn Samson (who is the STV News Westminster correspondent) was judged the Nations and Regions Presenter of the Year â winning for her work on STV’s current affairs programme Scotland Tonight, as well as the STV News at Six. The judges commented: ‘It was agreed our winner is fearless in holding power to account, exhibits sharp journalistic skill, but also clearly knows how to build a relationship with the viewers. The jury also appreciated how politics was made accessible, interesting and entertaining. Our winner demonstrated real depth, empathy when needed, passion and humour’.
In 2021, an interview Kathryn had with Boris Johnson went viral after she presented the Prime Minister with a £20 note as he defended the UK Government’s plans to cut Universal Credit.
The Network Presenter of the Year award went to Krishnan Guru-Murthy, of Channel 4 News, with the other two nominees being Scotland’s Kirsty Wark, for her role on the BBC 2 Newsnight programme, and Kate Garraway of ITV’s Good Morning Britain show.
BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team won for Desperately Seeking Asylum for BBC1 Scotland. The judges said: ‘The winning entry is a masterclass in reporting, journalistic rigour, and a fine example of how persistence does pay off in investigations. It was a brave story to undertake and a difficult subject to get to grips with. It succeeded and the result was a programme studded with revelations throughout the hour that altered the way the jury looked at the issue. The programme stood out for the remarkable stories and powerful personal testimony of vulnerable people’s lives’.
The prestigious RTS Special Award went to the news media community in Afghanistan, in recognition of those professionals who have supported major global news outlets for decades. Now, under the Taliban, many have lost their jobs, have been forced to flee their country, and sadly, some have been killed in the line of duty.
Here is the full list of winners:
Breaking News
Winner: Storming of the Capitol, ITV News
Camera Operator of the Year
Winner: Dean Massey, Sky News
Current Affairs: Home
Winner: The Men Who Sell Football, Al Jazeera Investigations
Current Affairs: International
Winner: The Missing Children, True Vision/Nevision, for ITV
Digital Award
Winner: All Hail the Lockdown, Al Jazeera English
Nations and Regions Current Affairs
Winner: Disclosure â Desperately Seeking Asylum, BBC Scotland
Nations and Regions News
Winner: Children In Crisis: Are we failing young minds? ITV News Central
Nations and Regions Presenter of the Year
Winner: Kathryn Samson, Scotland Tonight and STV News at Six
Network Daily News Programme of the Year
Winner: ITV News at Ten
Network Interview of the Year
Winner: Dominic Cummings: The Interview, BBC News/BBC 2
Presenter of the Year
Winner: Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Channel 4 News
Network Television Journalist of the Year
Winner: Robert Moore, ITV News
News Channel of the Year
Winner: Sky News
News Coverage: Home
Winner: The Cost of Covid, BBC News/BBC 1
News Coverage: International
Winner: Storming of the Capitol, ITV News
News Technology
Winner: Climate Live, Sky News
Scoop of the Year
Winner: Storming of the Capitol, ITV News
Specialist Journalist of the Year
Winner: Daniel Hewitt, ITV
Young Talent of the Year
Winner: Noel Phillips, Good Morning Britain, ITV
RTS Special Award
Winner: Afghan’s journalists
Outstanding Contribution Award
Winner: Samir Shah
6.
DC Thomson are in line for a multi-million pound windfall if the £558m takeover of the Edinburgh-based aviation logistics group John Menzies by Kuwait-based National Aviation Services (NAS) goes ahead.
Scottish business news website, Daily Business, reports: ‘The latest all-cash proposal of 608p per share is being unanimously recommended by the board which will deliver a £26.2m payday for Dundee-based DC Thomson. The publisher of The Courier, The Press and Journal (P&J) and The Sunday Post is the third largest shareholder in Menzies with 4.3m shares (4.68%). Menzies chairman and chief executive, Philipp Joeinig, has more than 2.54m shares, entitling him to a payout of about £15m’.
The £26.2m potential payday for DC Thomson illustrates the astuteness of the group’s investment policy over the years. This will be its second recent major windfall. Its latest annual accounts revealed that the group had made an investment gain of £350m on the back of the rise in its fortunes on the Stock Exchange.
John Menzies was first established way back in 1833 as a bookshop on Princes Street, Edinburgh, before moving into the newsagent and newspaper distribution businesses.
Since 2019, it has focused on aviation services, operating at 200 airports. NAS has until 5pm on 9 March to decide whether to make a firm offer for the company which has been fiercely independent in the past.
7.
My heart-warming media story of the week… Pensioner Chris Coxhead, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, advertised in the Southport & Formby Champion weekly newspaper to ask if any fellow Burnley FC supporters in his area could drive him to and from games.
The advertisement received more than 43,000 ‘likes’ after being posted on Twitter, with hundreds of comments from people offering to either give him a lift or pay for his petrol expenses.
Chris has now arranged a lift from a nearby fellow Burnley supporter, while club chairman Alan Pace offered him a VIP experience at the club’s Turf Moor home ground.
The appeal’s success provided a front-page splash for Champion. Chris told the newspaper: ‘When I took out the advert all I wanted was a lift! I am on a trial for Parkinson’s drugs so I decided to take out the advert because I thought it was the sensible thing to do because the drugs can make me feel weak so I didn’t want to drive so far. It was by Saturday morning that I realised how big the reaction had been. I couldn’t believe all the messages and best wishes from so many people’.
Champion’s group editor Malcolm Hindle commented: ‘We are delighted Chris’s advertisement has received so much positive attention. It just goes to show the incredible force a local newspaper can be – both in its own community and even further afield as his story shows’.