Scotland: new online newspaper launches

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 25, 2010 at 11:35 AM

A new web-only daily newspaper has launched in Scotland, The Guardian reports, after being expected for some weeks.

Called the Caledonian Mercury, the paper takes its name from one of Scotland's first news journals. It is edited and largely written by former staff from The Scotsman who departed after deep budget cuts at the paper. They will work as freelancers, and will be paid partly according to the "value" of their copy to readers and advertisers. How this will work is not yet clear.

The website will target middle-class, forty-something readers, and there are plans to market the paper to the diaspora through Scottish expatriate clubs in other countries. The site is free to read and plans to raise revenue through advertising. It was established and is edited by the former editor of The Scotsman website, Stewart Kirkpatrick. There is a substantial gap in the market for this new venture, he told the BBC.

"There is room - in fact, a desperate need - for an online, heavyweight publication committed to quality journalism," he said. "Scotland needs an intelligent title that uses the internet, not fights against it."

The paper will cover politics, foreign affairs, health, business and technology, entertainment, sport and the outdoors. It also features a heritage section with stories about Scottish history and culture. Breaking news will not be a focus, in favour of more analytical reporting. If the site is successful, more topics will be added, such as education and the environment. And there are plans to publish a quarterly news magazine with the best online pieces and other articles written for the print publication.

On the site, the best commenters will be given prizes, a strategy which aims to tackle the problem of offensive reader comments. Yet The Guardian notes the peculiarity of the paper's mix of the traditional and the contemporary: a strong heritage and history section combined with Twitter feeds, tag clouds, and an RSS newsfeed.

It has been a difficult few years for the Scottish newspaper industry. An inquiry was recently established into the decline of the local and weekly newspaper industry there, with the internet cited as a key concern. Will the launch of an online-only daily reinvigorate reporting in Scotland, or will it be more bad news for newspapers?

Sources: The Guardian, BBC