THE chief executive of the company that owns, among others, the Hamilton Advertiser and Stirling Observer newspapers, has backed local newspapers as vital to local democracy and predicted that “advertising spend will come back, and with that we will see a return to health of the newspaper market”.
Speaking on Sky Television, Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, said: “Now, this [local press] is not cat-up-a-tree journalism.
“What we are talking about is who turns up at the lower courts every morning, who is it that’s holding councils to account, where is that planning application being properly debated?”
Scottish & Universal also includes in its portfolio the Kilmarnock Standard, the Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser, the Paisley Daily Express, the Dumfries & Galloway Standard, and the Perthshire Advertiser – among many others.
