A new online campaign has been launched in a bid to stave off job losses at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail newspapers.
The official National Union of Journalists' campaign – ‘Save Our Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail’ – has turned to social networking site, Facebook, while members have rolled out a blog also.
The move coincides with continuing calls on publishers, Trinity Mirror, by the union to lift the threat of compulsory redundancies.
Last month, it was announced that 90 journalism posts had been earmarked for redundancy axed across the two titles with the sharing of content from sister papers the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People set to compensate.
Says the blog: “After more than 100 years as Scottish institutions, The Daily Record and The Sunday Mail are on the brink.
“Following last month’s announcement of 90 job losses – around 40 per cent of the editorial staff – the papers’ owners in London, Trinity Mirror, have now done the one thing readers and journalists were always assured would never happen.
“They are trying to turn your newspapers into token Scottish editions of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror.
“Just over a decade ago, they tried to launch a Scottish edition of the Mirror. It failed, not because of any lack of effort or ability on the part of the journalists who worked on it – but because Scottish readers had no appetite for a Daily Mirror with a few token Scottish trimmings.
“Yet now they are trying it again – only in a more subtle, sneaky way.
“This week, you will have noticed a sudden, dramatic change to the design and layout of the Record. This was carried out for one reason only – to mimic the design of the Mirror and make it easier for pages written and produced in London to be pasted directly into your Daily Record and Sunday Mail.”
It continues: “Make no mistake, this is the start of a process that could ultimately see the Daily Record and Sunday Mail brands disappear from Scotland forever.
“If they get away with this first step, it is more than likely that more Scottish journalists will be axed in the near future and the Scottish content of the papers will diminish even further.
“This site is designed to raise awareness about these unprecedented cuts and, especially, the Anglifcation of a product considered to be as much a part of Scottish society and culture as Irn Bru, The Old Firm, whisky and Tunnock’s.”
NUJ Scottish Organiser, Paul Holleran, said the online drive would be instrumental in raising recognition of the situation facing staff at the Record and Sunday Mail.
Since launching on Friday evening, the campaign’s profile page on Facebook has achieved the support of over 300 people.
Holleran told allmediascotland: “It has spread like wildfire and as word grows it’ll expand even further – especially when people see what the company is doing and the opportunity they have to take News International on.
“Making compulsory redundancies isn’t going to do that.”
