The Scottish media are in crisis, reports Iain MacWhirter. From downsizing at BBC Scotland to the imposition of a Portsmouth’s local newspaper editor as boss at the Scotsman – a role that “used to be one of the pillars of Edinburgh society”, notes MacWhirter – things are looking bad.
“The decline of great national papers is a matter of crucial importance to Scotland. The national media are disintegrating before our eyes, to be replaced by editionised English titles – Times, Daily Mail, Sun. This has real effects on Scottish civil society. Speak to Scottish MPs and MSPs right now and many will say that their constituents are preoccupied with immigration and the “swamping of Scotland”. This has nothing to do with demographic reality and everything to do with the prominence given to immigration in the English titles, like the Mail and the Sun, which Scots increasingly read.”
The immigration angle is worrying – very worrying – but even the Scottish press has been accused of scare-mongering on the issue. The Edinburgh Evening News website has an entire category devoted to immigration. Who’s leading who? We already know that England, where the obsession supposedly comes from, is not exactly being “swamped” either.
So, that argument aside for the moment, I daresay that if I was a globalist with the faith of Thomas Friedman
, I’d argue that in an increasingly interlinked world we should hardly be surprised that Scotland is looking outward, demanding a bigger worldview from publications better resourced to deliver it. Scottish newspapers have long been reducing the resources spent on covering the wider world – anywhere beyond Gretna, frankly – so, through this lens, it’s no shock that readers see the sparseness and look for something more. The only people shedding tears are the “local” politicians and other bigwigs who find their stage is no longer lit.
And, if I were a net new ager of the confidence of Jeff Jarvis, I’d probably say it doesn’t really matter anyway; newspapers, especially “local” ones (Scots hate having their national papers described thus, but that’s clearly what they’re becoming) are dying off, to be replaced by better things online. And, indeed, look online and you find a rare, genuine bright spot: Scotsman.com – 2.5m users and growing, on a tight budget but innovating away and winning a lot of admiration. And if it, or the other titles, don’t grow to meet a need, either geographical or philosophical, the bloggers will go online and do it instead.
Trouble is, while I’ve got some sympathy for both views, I can’t subscribe to either fully (although I do think Scotsman.com is splendid, and use it every day). Neither seems to quite cut it… many Scots friends complain the nation’s becoming more introverted, and Scottish blogging seems no more healthy than the rest of British blogging, which is to say there are one or two standouts, but nothing like the activity seen in other parts of Europe, or the US.
So what’s going on? As MacWhirter points out, it does seem odd that, less than a year out from Scottish elections, the BBC is pushing through a 25% cut in its budget. You’d think a lively national discussion would break out over the cuts… but apparently not.
Perhaps it’s because the places you’d be expecting that debate to happen – Record, Herald, Scotsman – have been too busy coping with their own internal battles. Perhaps it’s because those places have no clear idea of what kind of Scotland they want – the traditionally left-wing Record, after all, supported the “Keep the clause” campaign of bus mogul Brian Souter, while the once-nationalist(ish) Scotsman came out hard against the Scottish parliament, even after devolution, under Andrew Neil.
So… trouble is, if the Scottish media is so uncertain that it has lost even a view on its own place in Scottish society, and that uncertainty gets reflected on air and in print in a variety of ways, the new thing is that Scottish consumers get to choose. Once, it was that or nothing. Now there are better offerings from London, online and through the air.
So is that what’s going on – weak Scottish media being punished by market forces for being weak? Or is there something else at play? Does it even really matter? (I think it does… but, hey, I’m a hack) Anyone any thoughts?
I’m gatecrashing someone else’s launch today, writing from the cosy offices of 
