Scottish Newspapers - The decline continues

Iright has been following the uncertain future of the newspaper industry and has already written two articles here and here. Now it seems the decline in circulation of Scottish Newspapers continues. The Press Gazette has published The ABC year on year circulation figures for Scottish titles in February and it doesn't look good:

Daily Record – 349,127 (down 11.43%)

The Herald – 60,150 (down 9.95%)

The Scotsman – 49,158 (down 8.15%)

Sunday Mail – 438,637 (down 9.43%)

Sunday Post – 365,748 (down 9.00%)

Scotland on Sunday – 62,464 (down 7.56%)

Sunday Herald – 41,419 (down 15.63%)

The Press Gazette article can be read here. Incidentally the Press Gazette is closing its monthly magazine. The website states: 'We have therefore been forced to conclude that the market required to sustain a commercially viable Press Gazette magazine no longer exists. The last hard copy edition of Press Gazette will therefore be the May edition which will be published in April.'

Obviously journalists too look to the net for the latest information about their profession and a monthly magazine is of little or no relevance to them.

The Press Gazette site has another article worthy or a read which tells of turmoil within the industry with an NUJ organiser stating: "I was getting reports of senior people in tears at The Herald. What epitomises the loss of morale is when I met with the managing director of Newsquest after their announcement, he said we want between 30 and 40 journalists to go.' Find out more here.

All this brings the Gurnmeister to ponder the fate of our local paper the Nairnshire in these changing times. With no Internet presence the Nairnshire soldiers on and by the look of this week's edition with no shortage of advertising (the life blood of any paper). Iright has also written about the Monday night queue of the faithful at the Co-op, an article in which the Gurnmeister gently poked fun at the lack of an on-line edition. Well the queue on a Monday night seems to be getting longer again and what is interesting is that younger people are in that queue too. So perhaps the Nairnshire, given its cult following, will last a lot longer than some of the bigger national Scottish titles?