THE Scotsman and sister title, Scotland on Sunday, have announced a further raft of editorial appointments as the pair merge their content and production operation.
It follows recent editor changes that saw John McLellan become editor of The Scotsman (plus editor-in-chief of The Scotsman, SoS and also the Edinburgh Evening News), Ian Stewart made editor of SoS, and Tom Little editor of the Evening News.
All the most recent changes are from within, for instance The Scotsman’s business editor, Peter MacMahon, has been appointed assistant editor (comment, features and politics) for both titles.
Meanwhile, Frank O’Donnell is to be assistant editor (group head of news). He is currently Scotsman news editor.
Scotland on Sunday business and City editor, Terry Murden, becomes group business editor, while SoS arts editor (Review magazine editor for Scotland on Sunday, to be exact), Fiona Leith, has been appointed group magazines editor with additional responsibility for arts across The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.
Scotsman sports editor, Donald Walker, is appointed as group sports editor, while The Scotsman’s arts editor, Andrew Eaton, is to be group arts and entertainments editor, reporting to Fiona Leith.
Scotland on Sunday political editor, Eddie Barnes, has been appointed group politics editor, reporting to Peter MacMahon.
It is envisaged that these appointments will take effect before the end of next month.
In a memo to staff, McLellan says: “Following these appointments, the next phase of editorial restructuring will commence and I have asked each of the new department heads to develop proposals for new working arrangements.
“Any proposals made will only be implemented after due consultation with staff and, as before, we will seek to mitigate the impact of changes through consideration of voluntary redundancy and redeployment wherever possible.”
He adds: “Following successful implementation of pooled sub editing and picture desks, we are now no longer looking for volunteers for redundancy from these areas. Decisions regarding all outstanding voluntary redundancy applications will be made in due course as the next phase of the content merger plan is implemented.”
And he finishes, saying: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff for their continued understanding and co-operation through what is a difficult process of change for all concerned.
“I appreciate it may seem prolonged and I apologise for any uncertainty this may have caused, but, given we are committed to full consultation and to co-operation with the NUJ, a certain passage of time is inevitable.”
