The Caledonian Mercury.

[wullie m]

Folks, an online paper with the latest in Scottish news & views. The take, on Megrahi etc' Caledonian Mercury: Scottish news, stories and intelligent analysis from Scotland's first truly online newspaper wullie m

[Saorsa1]

Thanks WM.

I'll visit this paper on a regular basis (name Scottish republic), it's not the usual unionist partisan drivel.

All I want is fair, reasoned journalism and that seems a rare thing indeed in Scotland.

[Celyn]

Newsnet Scotland is also interesting.

[Saorsa1]

Very nice site indeed.

Thanks Celyn.

Why is it people know this stuff and I don't?

[Celyn]

Seriously, you did not know of those sites? I vaguely imagined that everyone did. Well, maybe you spend a lot of time out and about not-exercising the non-dog and I spend too much time on teh interweb tubes. See? Now there's your excuse!

That being the case, good on wullie m for raising the topic of news coverage in Scotland (and in the U.K. as a whole, for that matter). I'm not too keen on what we are fed by Gannet (owners of the "Herald") and by Johnston Press (and I was once dim enough to think that the "Scotsman" might improve when no longer owned by the Barclay brothers).

I gave up on having a television but whenever I do see television "news", I am usually appalled at its quality, or lack thereof.

There was a time when newspapers were taxed such that it kept them (mostly) only available for people of a certain level of income. Good way to keep control of information. And a good way to to ensure that any publisher not behaving nicely could be fined a ridiculous sum or could go to prison. Or both. Now, I fear, that is not really necessary in such a direct way.

The printed press is in a bad way, yet I doubt that they are doing anything sensible to counter the perceived threat of the internet. Providing more of balanced news and a lot less of "celebrities" might bring some customers back, but will they?

[Saorsa1]

THESE ARE FIGURES FROM A BLOG FROM PREVIOUS YEARS.

There is never any point in comparing the December ABC circulation figures with those of the month before. Comparisons with last December are valid, but in trying to provide a more coherent picture of the long-term trends I've looked back at the previous six Decembers.

Consider first the overall daily national newspaper market. The monthly year-on-year drop comparing December 2008 to December 2007 was 4.5%. That compares with 2% (2007-6), 3.2% (2006-5), 1.7% (2005-4), 3.2% (2004-3) and 3.8% (2003-2). Clearly, therefore, the downward trend is accelerating.

I carried out the same survey for the Sunday nationals and the acceleration was even more marked. The decrease between December 2008 and December 2007 was 6.3%, far higher than the declines in the previous five years. (There was a 5.3% fall between 2005 and 2004 but the figures were skewed by the dramatic drop in sales of The Business, now defunct).

Now let's look at the daily sectors. The qualities lost 4.7% of their sales between December 2008 and 2007. This is by far the largest monthly year-on-year decrease over the five years. The middle market's 6.2% loss was far and away its highest (the next largest decrease was 3.3% (2005-4). As for the red-tops, the 3.5% fall was mid-range (the largest drop of 5.4% occurred in 2004-3 and there was a drop of 4.8% in 2006-5).

The relative stability of the red-tops' decline can be explained by the success of The Sun, aided by judicious price-cutting of course, in slowing the rate of its decline. The other three titles - Daily Mirror, Daily Star and Daily Record - have lost substantial sales at a fairly regular rate over the six years.

The sudden middle market fall is down to the previously successful Daily Mail having finally succumbed to the downward trend of all dailies. Its December 2008 sale is its worst performance in many years. But its rival, the Daily Express, has nothing to boast about, having just posted its worst sale since it was launched in 1900.

The really interesting story concerns the quality dailies. In December 2003, the market-leading Daily Telegraph sold an average of 911,795 copies. Last month it managed a headline sale of just 824,244, a 9.6% fall. But note this: five years ago the paper's bulk sales total was 23,182. Last month it had risen to 98,336.

In other words, a comparison of genuine sales - 888,613 five years ago to 725,908 last month - shows that the real decline stands at a whopping 18.3%.

On both measures, the Telegraph has performed worse than its rivals. Sticking to headline figures, The Independent has gone down by 15.8%, The Guardian by 8.5% and The Times by 5.6%. The Financial Times has actually improved its sale December 2008 compared to December 2003, but that is entirely due to copies sold outside Britain.

The other interesting factor is that three of the qualities (Times, Guardian and Indy) - unlike the red-tops or the middle market titles - have had ups as well as downs over the five years, due to surges of reader interest prompted by changes of format.

The beneficial effect of that is well behind them now, however. The major increases to their readership have come online, especially for the Telegraph, Times and Guardian, which are racking up millions of unique users a month between them.

I would not expect the circulation trend to change dramatically in the coming 12 months, though the Sunday red-tops do appear to be plunging faster than any other sector. The News of the World will bounce back above 3m and it retains its high market share because its rivals are going through the worst sales periods in their history.

Meanwhile, the most fascinating story centres on the fate of the Independent titles. Will they last out 2009 in the hands of their current owners? The Independent's sale has been badly hit by the £1 cover price, but it has steadied over the past couple of months.

That said, it is hard to see how its beleaguered owners can go on justifying the expense of publishing it with a full-rate sale of a mere 117,000 copies a day. The pressure to dispose of the paper will surely grow in the coming months.

[Saorsa1]

"three titles - Daily Mirror, Daily Star and Daily Record - have lost substantial sales at a fairly regular rate over the six years."

R.I.P. Daily Wreckord A.S.A.P.

Who the heck buys these crappy snoozepapers anyway?