THE number of editorial posts expected to be lost at The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday newspapers is to be at the lower end of the range predicted a month ago, when it was revealed that between 20 and 30 jobs were at risk of redundancy.
Yesterday, the editor of both titles, Ian Stewart, told staff that it might not even be 20, depending on what emerges from re-shaping the papers, and it’s understood that 12 applications for voluntary redundancy have been received since the initial announcement, not that necessarily all would be accepted.
Contrary to some reports, hardly any pages are to go from the two titles. Two news pages are to go at The Scotsman and there is the outside possibility of a little shaving of the Scotland on Sunday sports offering.
In total, the papers have almost 150 full-time editorial staff, if full-time casual workers are factored in.
However, it is true that the Scotland on Sunday supplement, The Week, which was launched early last year, is to be folded into sister supplement, Spectrum. Also, The Scotsman’s The Arts supplement – published on a Thursday – is to be rolled into the paper’s Saturday Saturday magazine.
Stewart also said that a new initiative, Friends of The Scotsman, aiming to further engage with ‘civic Scotland’, will be launched within the next four-to-six weeks.
