His Nibs: A look at the restructuring processes being undertaken within Scotland's media
In the latest entry by The Drum's anonymous blogger, revealing news from within Scotland's media it wouldn't want you to hear, His Nibs unveils the media companies looking to shed jobs and re-strategise how to effectively deliver news and content, on a smaller budget.
Restructuring is the current name of the game across most of Scotland’s media and at the moment it’s the broadcasters who hold centre stage.
Up in Aberdeen it looks like a number of technicians are set to depart Grampian TV, while a small number of editorial posts are about to be created. This is part of STV’s masterplan which is to provide an independent news service for Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Negotiations between management and staff are continuing relatively smoothly. The same is not happening in Glasgow, though, where unions and management at BBC Scotland appear to be at loggerheads.
The Beeb is trying to shed around 140 jobs as part of their restructuring but talks between the two parties have ground to a halt. The unions claim that management have begun targeting the removal of specific posts before the obligatory consultation period has ended and have pulled out of negotiations.
A meeting scheduled for this week has been called off and no others have been pencilled in.
Meanwhile, Forth and Clyde Press are pressing ahead with their changes. Apart from looking for a new editorial manager, the firm is thought to have decided to reverse a previous policy which saw many of their Ayrshire journalists working out of a shed in Ardrossan.
Apparently that restructuring experiment didn’t produce the best results and now reporters will be encouraged to spend more time in the towns and villages where the papers are sold.
Glad to see that good old-fashioned local journalism is still alive and well.