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Stop Press: Part 1
The slow death
of a treasured
national institution
Kenneth Roy
Here’s something: Alastair Dunnett, the last great editor of the Scotsman, was in charge of the paper from 1956 to 1972: a 16-year reign, just one
year less than the aggregated years of the last nine editors.
Nine editors in 17 years– 10 in 18 years if you include the brief reign of Andrew Jaspan just before the Barclays took over – isn’t bad going. Indeed for a while the Scotsman editorship was more or less an annual appointment: half-yearly at the start of the new millennium as Rebecca succeeded Tim. Mr McLellan did well to last three years; as he was escorted from the premises on his last day – editors not being trusted to leave with dignity in their own time – he should have sensed that a fourth year was beyond anyone’s reach. Might as well get your P45 sorted before you start. To say nothing of your compensation package.
Among his predecessors, Iain Martin has gone on to make a name for himself as a political analyst, deservedly so. But what of the others? I confess that, although I was quietly tending this magazine for the duration of his editorship, the name Mike Gilson failed to cross my radar. But it is easy to mock; Scotsman editors aren’t given the time or the freedom to establish themselves.
What is true of football managers is also true of editors. The reason Chelsea is such a joke is that it fires its manager at the end of every season; actually before the end of this one, in a slight departure from the norm. Alex Ferguson, however, after an inauspicious start at Manchester United, was trusted to come good. Look at the boy now. Here’s something: Alastair Dunnett, the last great editor of the Scotsman, was in charge of the paper from 1956 to 1972: a 16-year reign, just one year less than the aggregated years of the last nine editors. He was in the Ferguson class of longevity, and it showed.
In 2005, an over-stretched local newspaper outfit, the Johnston Press, had a rush of blood to its silly head and bought the Scotsman group from the Barclays for £160 million. It has already seen off three editors and, if the paper survives, will doubtless see off several more. It is a crazy way to run a business, yet not at all surprising. The company had no expertise in running a national newspaper, far less in securing the future of a treasured national institution which the Scotsman was and potentially remains. What we are witnessing in the slow death of this newspaper is a national tragedy, but it may not be unavoidable yet.
Tomorrow: Part II of Stop Press
Kenneth Roy is editor of the Scottish Review
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