Herald and Times brought to task by Scottish Parliament
A debate held in The Scottish Parliament last night over the job cuts at The Herald and Evening Times Group saw an outraged response from MSPs in attendance.
The motion lodged by Sandra White for SNP Glasgow was to debate the announcement of staff redundancies being held by the Glasgow based Newspaper printers which owns The Herald, The Sunday Herald and The Evening Times.
In opening the debate White stated: “The Draconian antics of management, which has resulted in journalists on all three titles being made redundant and invited to reapply for jons in the new structure, call into questions the assurances that were given to the Competition Commission and raise some serious points.”
Bill Kidd for SNP (Glasgow) said that he would boycott all Newsquest owned titles as a result of the measures being taken, while Cathy Peattie for Labour (Falkirk East) condemned editor in chief Donald Martin.
There was a general consensus of support for staff at the company and 
Pauline McNeill of Labour (Glasgow Kelvin) who’s constituency the headquarters of Newsquest is based within, said: “The way in which the company sacked its staff and revised its job descriptions to introduce lesser terms and conditions in fundamentally wrong.”
Margo MacDonald, Independent (Lothians) did say that while she did not support the management at the company, it should also be considered that it did have declining circulation figures and was also considering its advertising revenues which were “vanishing like snow off a dyke”.
She also said that she did not believe that the Parliament could sort the situation but it could examine the future of mass-media communications in the future.
Jim Mather, The Minster for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism concluded the debate by stating that he had persuaded the Group's managing director Tim Blott, as president of the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society, to bring together a forum of people from within the newspaper industry in Scotland – including Paul Holleran from the NUJ – to discuss a way forward. 
“By bringing together the right people in a single room we can begin to unleash the potential for collaboration and achieve the outcome to which I think Margo MacDonald was alluding,” said Mather.
However, in a column in today's Herald newspaper a comment piece said that it was "disappointing" that the Group's "unwavering commitment to quality Scottish content" had not been recognised.
While admitting that the move to make all of its editorial staff reapply for roles within a new multimedia structure was a course of action that was "unpalatable" and that it recognised the impact that it had on staff and its standing in the wider community, the paper went on to say: "...much of the debate seemed to be based solely on a briefing by the NUJ regarding the radical and controversial steps we have taken to become more dynamic and flexible, and ready to embrace the unending change that is now the norm in the media industry...
"...What was missed throughout the debate was that we had spent several years seeking incremental change and flexibility. We were continually thwarted by a small but vocal and influential minority, who refused to adopt modern practices or work on our internet sites."