THE Scottish Press Awards will be taking place this year without the involvement of The Scottish Sun.
This year, it has declined to enter the competition and it will not be booking tables at the event, either; instead, it will be running its own, internal awards ceremony.
The reasoning is partly a desire to provide all staff at the paper – rather than a handful – the opportunity to enjoy an awards evening.
David Dinsmore – general magager of News International (Scotland) but currently acting managing editor of The Sun – told allmediascotland.com: “It’s only ever a few people who get to attend the awards ceremony; reporters mostly. But there are so many other parts of the business that deserve recognition, such as sales, sub-editing and technolgoy. We want to have a big bash for the whole team, so we are going to run our own, in-house awards.”
For several years, Express Newspapers have declined to take part in the awards, but Jim Raeburn, director of the organisers, the Scottish Newspaper Society, said he was optimistic The Sun would be back.
It’s understood The Sun’s sister titles, The Times and the Sunday Times are not following suit. And publishers, News International, will be taking a table at the awards ceremony.
Said Raeburn: “While I am disappointed that we will not have entries from The Scottish Sun this year, I understand the reasons, including the demise of [sister title] the News of the World [in July] and the impact that has had on their fellow journalists. However, I am optimistic that we will see their return next year.”
The awards are scheduled for April 19, in Glasgow.
