Scotland the Brave? by Gerry Hassan

Author:Gerry Hassan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912387618
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
Published: 2019-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

The SNP Years

The SNP’s attainment of power in 2007 seemed to bring a sharp change. Even in a majority from 2011 to 2016, the party demonstrated an iron discipline about resolving differences. That discipline was partly under the dominance and intimidating eye of Alex Salmond as First Minister and was justified in the service of the party’s aim of achieving independence. Whatever you make of the lack of open debate, or of acknowledgement of difficulty or problems, it has not been good news for journalists.

The focus on independence, and the deference to the cause and the leadership, has made for a much duller 12 years in the news pages. Alongside the discipline for this period, there were also important differences. Salmond liked to court elements of the press, set the agenda and make headlines. He considered himself a master of handling the media (and presumably still does) and helped as party leader and First Minister by those of a younger generation he had mentored. Kevin Pringle, though temperamentally unlike him, was Salmond’s talented, key media adviser and spokesman, and was vital to developing and actioning media strategy. Nicola Sturgeon had also learned at the feet of the master, but as First Minister, she has not found it comes as naturally to play the media game. She has, instead, been more cautious (Geoghegan, 2017) – projecting an image primarily through broadcast. At the time of writing, 12 years into office, there are signs that this SNP self-discipline is coming under unprecedented strain. Supporters are straining against the caution of moves towards a second independence referendum, and the handling of allegations about Alex Salmond’s behaviour while First Minister.

The rout of Labour in 2011 removed even more of the well-known figures who had featured in the soap opera narratives developed by newspapers in preceding years. The ‘rainbow’ Parliament of 2003–07, with its Greens and Scottish Socialists, had become SNP yellow yet largely grey through the tight discipline, while the flaring of firebrand rhetoric by and about Tommy Sheridan moved on to the law courts.

As this happened, print circulation was falling away. Between 1999 and 2019, circulation plummeted by at least two-thirds on many titles. The Herald now sells fewer than 30,000. The Scotsman has print circulation well below 20,000 and gives many of them away. It can claim to have far more readers online than it previously had, as content can be accessed for free. But its influence on public debate, as a forum for debate, has dwindled.

The Press and Journal in Aberdeen and The Courier, in Dundee, joined under the ownership of DC Thompson, stuck closer to their time-honoured formula of local, regional and heavily edition-ised coverage, and saw slower declines. Among red tops, the Scottish Sun had long since overhauled the Daily Record, just as its stablemate, The Times, now outsells both The Herald and The Scotsman. London titles could outspend Scottish-based ones, on coverage, breadth and in many ways on quality (Fraser, 2008).

The economics of printing allowed for more titles. In 2014, The National was launched, to tap into a pro-independence market.

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