A website devoted to public notices is not expected to result in them disappearing from newspapers – according to report quoting the director of the Scottish Newspaper Society.
Says The Drum media and marketing magazine, Jim Raeburn was reacting to news that the Scottish local authorities organisation, CoSLA, has launched a website designed to carry public notices.
His comments come just months after the Scottish Government scrapped plans which – had they been approved – would have relieved local authorities of their statutory obligation to run public notices in newspapers. Amid fears that local newspapers faced losing a vital revenue stream, a majority of MSPs had signalled they would vote against any such proposal going in front of the Scottish Parliament.
Raeburn is quoted, saying: “I don’t see it as inevitable that public sector notices will disappear from newspapers at all. That’s what CoSLA and its improvement services will no doubt be hoping to achieve but the relatively low broadband connections in Scotland, the people who don’t have an interest to declare making very clear that they wish to use newspaper for public notices, they will continue to be in newspapers.”
The Drum claims that, already, authorities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and South Lanarkshire are using the website, developed by Glasgow digital agency, Spider Online.
