Scottish Newspaper Society runs MSP ad campaign
Scottish Newspaper Society runs MSP ad campaign
An advertising campaign has been launched by the Scottish Newspaper Industry targeting MSP’s expressing their concerns about the Scottish Government’s plans to place local authority announcements on a bespoke web portal.
The MSP’s have already voted in favour of the Scottish Newspaper Society’s lobbying of the Government against plans to remove public announcements from Scottish newspapers, which would be a heavy blow to the industry’s already embattled advertising revenue streams.
The campaign has been placed in The Scotsman and The Herald and has been sent on behalf of 23 Scottish newspaper publishers including Scottish & Universal Newspapers, The Scotsman Publications, Herald & Times Group, Clyde & Forth Press, News International and Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail.
MSP's recently voted against the Government's plans to move public announcments to a specially made portal, leaving the Government to decide whether to place the motion in front of parliament.
Michael Johnston, president of the newly formed Scottish Newspaper Society has said that the society would lobby MSP's 'intensively' to vote against the proposal.
The advert reads:
Dear Member of the Scottish Parliament,
On behalf of the Scottish Newspaper Industry, we are publishing an open letter to express our deep concern at a proposal from the Scottish Government to remove the requirement for important local authority announcements to be publicised in Scottish newspapers.
We believe this proposal would remove a fundamental part of the democratic process and the public’s right to know.
The Scottish Government proposal is such that important announcements (about the likes of road closures, school closures, planning applications, anti-social behaviour, public finances, gambling licenses, compulsory land purchase and the local environment) would not be published in newspapers, but would be listed instead on a Government website.
Given that nearly ten times* as many people in Scotland use newspapers than they do the internet as their main source of information about their local area, we believe this proposal is flawed and will undoubtedly lead to greatly reduced scrutiny and therefore accountability for local government announcements and actions.
There will be the risk of less open, more secretive government and of many grass roots issues being decided without proper consultation and debate. In a democratic society, it is difficult to understand how the Scottish Government can contemplate disenfranchising large numbers of the public by resorting to less effective communication channels.
We recognise that it is an unusual step to be publishing an open letter from the diverse spectrum of Scottish newspapers, but we believe that a fundamental democratic issue is at stake and that it is vital that the public should know what is going on.
Yours faithfully
Angus County Press ltd
Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail ltd
Forth Independent Newspapers Ltd
Orkney Media Group Ltd
The Scotsman Publications Ltd
Stranraer & Wigotownshire Free Press
Scottish & Universal Newspapers Ltd
News International Newspapers (Scotland) Ltd
Associated Newspapers Ltd
DNG Media
Herald & Times Group
W Peters & Co Ltd
The Oban Times Group
The Shetland Times Ltd
Strachan & Livingston Ltd
Clyde & Forth Press Ltd
Johnston (Falkirk) Ltd
E&R Inglis Ltd
Scottish Provincial Press Ltd
CN Group Ltd
Tweeddale Press Group Ltd
Stornoway Gazette Ltd
Galloway Gazette Ltd
*Source: Ofcam media tracker
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Comments
I'm bored. And this has done nothing to relieve this boredom.
there is some talk of English councils doing this so it will be interesting to see what happens here
Hilarious... who reads them anyway??
comments
Anonymous
We are talking about important public information which affects peoples' lives. In a democracy, people have a right to know about government and local authority matters that impact them.
Local newspapers command a huge audience. They are read on a per issue basis by 85% of the population while broadband penetration lags far behind at 60% across Scotland and less than 40% in key areas such as Glasgow. Research has also repeatedly shown that newspapers are the nation's most trusted medium. They are therefore a much more appropriate place to carry Public Information Notice rather than a state controlled portal with poor visability. This is confirmed by reader research. A survey in June revelaed 90% of readers expected to see public notices in a newspaper, only 0.8% behind birth, death and marriage notices.
The Scottish Government's proposals put it at odds with the rest of the UK as Westminster has recently rejected a similar approach as being undemocratic. This is a view held by the vast majority of MSPs who, as mentioned above, voted 76-48 two weeks ago in support of ditching the Governement's plan.
Isn't it a Government initiative to have more of the Scottish population online? Therefore if people are made aware of where to look for public information they will go online and do so. Perhaps using Newspapers to spread the message rather than spending thousands of pounds on adverts, when it is well documented that online is cheape! Would be interested in seeing the link to the research where the public have said newspapers are the most trusted medium, how many where surveyed?
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