Media Scotland group must produce a response to changing media landscape, says Rennie
Allan Rennie, the editor-in-chief of Trinity Mirror's newly-formed Media Scotland operation, has told the Sunday Herald that the group will have to hone a response to the rapidly-changing media landscape.
In an interview with the Sunday Herald’s business editor, Colin Donald, Rennie said he didn’t wish to outline detailed plans on the group’s future developments until he has spoken to staff within the newly-merged operation which includes the Daily Record, Sunday Mail and a number of local titles which were previously under the S&UN umbrella.
However, Rennie, a former editor of the Sunday Mail, who has returned north from his former post as development director of the Trinity Mirror national newspapers, explained: "I am trying to speak to all of the staff, and ...I'm going to be doing the grand tour of the 17 S&UN titles.
“It’s a big empire, there's a lot of history and heritage and the first thing I have to make sure is that we hang on to that."
He told Donald: “"We really need businesses of scale to survive and prosper. It's not just about competing against traditional media, it's about competing against the elephants in the room – rather, the T-Rexes in the room – like Google and Facebook."
"The media landscape is going to change dramatically, people are going to progress to IP and local TV.
“We feel that we have a really strong base in some fantastic brands and some great journalism, and we want to extend them into other media."
Media Scotland also embraces the Business Insider magazine, an events business and 36 websites.
When he was appointed to his new post, which saw the departure of Bruce Waddell, editor-in-chief of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, Rennie admitted to The Scotsman that the newly-combined group had made the change as a defensive measure in a difficult media environment but also pointed out it was an opportunity to grow the business.
He was quoted as saying: “Of course it is defensive to protect our current position, but there are opportunities we can exploit by coming together.”