Scotland's newspapers are worth roughly £1bn a year to the nation's economy, a new report says.
The country's titles - such as the historic Herald and our new sister publication The National, Sunday Herald and Evening Times - are undergoing dramatic transformations as readership moves online.
A study by Edinburgh-based Optimal Economics shows the industry continues to make a huge economic impact, employing more than 3000 people, fully a quarter of them now in digital production.
The economists, who were commissioned by industry body the Scottish Newspaper Society by Edinburgh-based Optimal Economics, found newspapers supported another 4,300 jobs indirectly.
Picture: today's front page of The Herald:
The analysts measured direct gross value added of roughly £146m, rising to £214 when indirect sources are included. Sales generated from newspaper advertising reach £300m a year. But the overall benefit to the Scottish economy of newspaper advertising was measured at £800m.
Scottish Newspaper Society director John McLellan said: “Scottish newsbrands do not just keep the public better informed and help readers make better choices, they are a vital cogs in the Scottish economy at all levels, from local to national, helping businesses small and large to reach their markets.
"This report demonstrates just how vital Scottish news brands are to the economic well-being of the nation as a whole."
Yesterday's front page of The Sunday Herald
Peter Wood, director of Optimal Economics, said: “The Scottish newspaper industry is an important economic sector in its own right, but it has a wider strategic importance beyond its size alone and is an essential platform for discussion, promotion and development of creative activity."
The report also found that sales of the traditional paper product now accounted for 58 per cent of total income for the industry.
Mr Wood and his colleagues identified newspapers as a key element of Scotland's digital, cultural and creative industries because so many of those employed as "creatives". Almost half of those working in the industry are journalists. Scotland has 164 newspapers.
Today's front page of The Evening Times
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel