Scotland on Sunday intensifies attack on stalled Sunday Herald
Scotland on Sunday today launched a promotion in the West of Scotland designed to add pressure on the Sunday Herald, whose experiment with a magazine format appears to be stalling.
Backed with TV advertising SoS cut its price in a promotion which stressed the multi-section positioning of the title.
The Sunday Herald in contrast has moved away from offering multiple sections to a one section all-encompassing format. However, speculation suggests that they could have lost up to a quarter of their sales as a result, with circulation sinking from around 43,000 to below the 35,000 mark.
In a review for The Drum of the title when it was launched, Charlie Crawford, business director for MediaCom Scotland summed up the dilemma by describing the re-packaging as: “a brave innovation or the last roll of the dice for a beleaguered newspaper? From a straw poll in the office I do think they’re taking a gamble – most of my colleagues were unanimous in their agreement that the main reason they bought a Sunday newspaper was for the supplements. I do hope it’s successful but, whatever the outcome, I applaud them for trying.”
Adding to the pressure was a NUJ ballot at the newspaper to authorise journalists to continue a work-to-rule campaign designed to oppose compulsory redundancies. Paul Holleran was reported in allmediascotland as saying: “People are fearful of possible future job losses, especially amid concerns that the Sunday Herald has lost sales following its recent relaunch.”
In the last month ABC Scotland on Sunday reported sales of around 54,000.