The long-running debate as to whether The Scotsman and The Herald (plus their respective Sunday sister titles) should merge – at least in terms of sharing back office functions – has received the support of one of the former's most senior figures.
Writing for the Scottish Review website, Bill Jamieson, executive editor at The Scotsman, writes: “I do not profess to have any inside track on what newspaper managements are thinking. But it would be surprising to me if in the next few years the Scotsman and Herald titles are not brought in under one management.
“The two titles could remain editorially separate with their own editors, geographic, cultural and political biases. But they would shelter under a common umbrella of shared services – marketing, distribution, advertising, HR, wages, library and IT services. This would shave millions of pounds off costs while offering advertisers a more compelling circulation proposition and also maintaining the editorial integrity of the two titles where it matters.
“The 'shared umbrella' approach would seem to offer the best means of releasing more resources for news, analysis and op ed commentary as befits two distinct and separate titles.”
A version of the article can be read, here, on allmediascotland.com.
