There was an article in the Press Gazette on April 1st that had me checking the fallibility of my gullibility monitor. Under the headline " SCOTTISH JOURNALISTS ARE 'NOT COPING', MP's TOLD" I read with a tear in my een, how hard bitten Scottish journalists have developed a dose of the wibbles in the current economic armageddon.
Chunky bearded Liverpudlian Paul Holleran, 58, the National Union of Journalists' Scottish organiser, was asked by chairman Mohammad Sarwar MP at the Scottish affairs committee how journalists were coping.
Everton fan Holleran, with his lip all a quiver, replied: "They’re not coping. I carried out a surgery the other week, and had people from 9am to 6.15pm, complaining about new contracts, new working conditions, the pressure they have been put under.
"I was getting reports of senior people in tears at The Herald. What epitomises the loss of morale is when I met with the managing director of Newsquest after their announcement, he said we want between 30 and 40 journalists to go.
"They had 51 volunteers. That tells you the level of morale."
Yep, the recession is hitting Scottish journos hard. The clichéd view of the hard drinking, hard man Scottish journalist is impacting on this generation who are oft seen crying into their expenses fuelled Mojitos whilst twittering on their Blackberries about how evil their bosses are to them...
So what's at the bottom of this crisis which has seen men and women of letters polish up their CV's and sit up and beg, salivating at the prospect of moving from editor posts at National daily's to Media Communication jobs with North Lanarkshire District Council?
Chunky bearded Liverpudlian Paul Holleran, 58, father of three has the answer.
Sarwar asked why circulation was dipping. Hunky bearded Liverpudlian Paul Holleran, 58, father of three, Everton fan, cited smaller newsrooms – but also blamed publishers, for appointing
ENGLISH EDITORS to Scottish titles, claiming this had not helped.
"In the past five years there have been a number of actions that have impacted on the quality of the newspapers in Scotland," he said.
"I'm talking of a number of appointments where editors originated from south of the Watford Gap, shall we say.
"They were appointed editors of Scottish newspapers without knowing the local patch. That was a big starting point.
"They're trying to regain that momentum. However, during that period, as profitability of these titles has gone up – and it has gone up, quite dramatically - they have closed a number of correspondents.
"There's a lack of coverage of European Parliament, in Brussels and Strasbourg, the number of columnists has gone down, there's less diversity. That's part of the problem of falling circulation."
Chunky bearded Scouser Paul Holleran, 58, father of three, with a twinkle in his eye, also cited competition from English papers with Scottish pages, especially the "cut-price" Daily Star and Sun.
Sooooooooo appointing English editors with a 'British' perspective to Scottish titles has not worked. The endless torrent of anti-SNP headlines and stories in the Hootsman, Herald, Daily Labour and faux Jock blatts has merely brought about a paradigm shift in the Scottish electorate and has seen the "Nationalists Seize Control" of holyrood and Local Authorities the length and breadth of Alba.
When all this is done and dusted and Scotland is once again a normal Independent country, a major thesis on the impact of propaganda emanating from "South of the Watford Gap" originated editors needs to be done. Colour me bemused.
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