The Stornoway Gazette suffers embarrassing social media storm after criticising itself
The Stornoway Gazette has found itself at the centre of an embarrassing social media storm after its official social media accounts showed the Johnston Press-owned newspaper insulting itself and the editor.
The weekly newspaper’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts posted a barrage of quick fire insults accusing it of allowing the quality of its newspaper to slip.
One tweet described the 99 year-old paper as a "once proud broadsheet" before a second tweet said it was now "pretty dire".
The official Facebook page of The Stornoway Gazette then went on to criticise journalists at the paper and suggested the editor should leave. The posts have since been deleted however they remained in place for some 17 hours.
A Johnston Press spokeswoman told The Herald that it was "fairly obvious what's happened" and added “we know who is behind the tweets and are taking appropriate action."
The posts garnered a lot of attention and began trending in Edinburgh where Twitter users appeared stunned by the posts with many believing that the paper’s social media outlets had been hacked.
Johnston Press, the Edinburgh-based newspaper group, became the owner of the paper in 2004 when they bought Score Press, which had been a division of Scottish Radio Holdings.
It was awarded 2013 Newspaper of the Year at the annual Highlands and Islands Media Awards.