{"id":7476,"date":"2018-09-20T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=7476"},"modified":"2026-04-18T19:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:34:32","slug":"two-new-scottish-sundays-buck-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2018\/09\/two-new-scottish-sundays-buck-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"Two new Scottish Sundays buck the trend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My first job as a trainee reporter was on a Sunday title. Sundays are a breed apart. We had contempt for our daily sister, were drunk until Thursday and staffed by some of some of the oddest journalists in town. Unsurprisingly, the paper doesn\u2019t exist any more.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a different rhythm to newsgathering. Much of the Sunday paper has to be away early, with stories that won\u2019t date. Front page leads have to be exclusives, it\u2019s just too risky relying on events to bail you out \u2013 even in Northern Ireland in the 1980s where I was working. This is one reason why the sting and the \u201ckiss-and-tell\u201d are among Sunday staples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a Sunday paper news editor, you live in fear that the splash<\/a> (the front page story) you have been nursing all week will leak to another title. The news business is a kleptocracy, and colleagues on your sister title are the enemy. All\u2019s fair in love, war and newsgathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promiscuous Sunday readers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sunday newspaper readers are different, too. They still have a little time on their hands, and a desire to be entertained. They will frequently buy titles at odds with their daily habits: Guardian readers flirting with the Sunday Times; Sun readers, bereft of the News of the World, picking up the Sunday Mirror or heading \u201cupmarket\u201d to the Mail on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday is also the day readers are tempted to take a second title; and in those parts of the UK the BBC euphemistically calls \u201cthe nations and the regions\u201d, indigenous papers rub shoulders with the big London players from what is still called Fleet Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the economics of publishing a newspaper become increasingly challenging<\/a>, stand-alone titles published once a week look like a luxury to the accountants who now run media organisations. So seven-day operations make sense. In 2012, Rupert Murdoch replaced the discredited News of the World<\/a> with a Sunday edition of the Sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heritage, politics and independent views<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Newsquest<\/a> executives in Scotland came to the same conclusion when they announced in August that the Herald<\/a> \u2013 its daily broadsheet \u2013 was to run seven days a week. The victim was the Sunday Herald<\/a>, then without an editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In normal circumstances, that would have been that. But this is Scotland, and Scotland is not normal. Newsquest\u2019s problem was the Sunday Herald\u2019s editorial support for Scottish independence. Taken down that road by its urbane editor, Richard Walker, the Sunday Herald was the lone media voice supporting independence in the 2014 referendum. Walker went on to become founding editor of the National<\/a> \u2013 designed to tap into nationalist sentiment after the independence referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Herald claims to be neutral on independence \u2013 even the dogs in the street know where it sits on the issue. It may not wear a sash and a bowler hat, but it is temperamentally unionist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the SNP now established as the natural party of government in Scotland, and with a second independence referendum on the political agenda, killing off the only Sunday in favour of Scotland as a sovereign nation would have displayed a distinct lack of pragmatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, against the tide of consolidation, Newsquest\u2019s single title was replaced by two. Say hello to the \u201cneutral\u201d Herald on Sunday in a racy tabloid livery, and the Sunday National \u2013 with Richard Walker again as launch editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the papers say<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a brave move for both titles. It is notoriously difficult to persuade readers to change their habits. Can a Herald reader who is wedded to the Observer or Mail on Sunday be seduced back? And what about the fledgling National? It\u2019s tough out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journalism is solid, but \u2013 in the first two weeks at least \u2013 neither generated the front pages they needed to compete effectively. Rule 101 of a launch edition is to have an exclusive. The Herald\u2019s \u201cLifeline to Scotland\u2019s islands in jeopardy\u201d did not cut it. The Sunday National led on \u201cBoris \u2018set to go for PM\u2019 \u2026 and trigger Indyref2\u201d. Billed as an \u201cexclusive\u201d, it was one of those exclusives nobody else would want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside, the National was pacier than the Herald. Even Sundays need news, and it delivered. The internet sensation \u201cgiggling granny<\/a>\u201d was a classic Sunday read, and Jennifer Johnston\u2019s big spread on Scotland\u2019s postcode lottery for primary one parents deserved its prominence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign correspondent David Pratt<\/a> brings insight, gravitas and an international perspective to the Sunday National\u2019s broadsheet Seven Days section; its news and features agenda is not quite as unremittingly politically driven as the daily, though Nicola Sturgeon got star billing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Herald suffers most from the transition. In tabloid form, it\u2019s like an ageing uncle wearing a baseball cap. The daily broadsheet can sell a story; on the tabloid, the squeezed-in lead barely makes a splash. Inside, the flow of news and features is clunky. \u201cThe Week\u201d section, opening the paper, is a mess. A spread on Strictly Come Dancing up front jarred, and the big read on pages six and seven kills the pace up front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That may change as the paper settles down. But it should be taken as a warning not to mess with the format of the daily, especially if trying to align the titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oddly, both share the same sports coverage and an unbranded Sunday Life supplement. The National needs it to bulk up. It\u2019s a catch-all lifestyle supplement that doesn\u2019t have a clear sense of purpose. The papers also share David Pratt \u2013 a great journalist, but sharing writers and sections muddies the waters. Sundays need to be individualistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At their best, Sundays are distinctive, tribal and totally attuned to their readers. If they are to carve out a place for themselves, these two new Sundays are going to have to do more to break exclusives that set the agenda for the week ahead \u2013 and give Scottish readers the excuse they need to change their buying habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First pubklished by The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘ If they are to carve out a place for themselves, these two new Sundays are going to have to do more to break exclusives that set the agenda for the week ahead \u2013 and give Scottish readers the excuse they need to change their buying habits.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":235,"featured_media":7485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[295],"class_list":["post-7476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-scottish-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/235"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18807,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7476\/revisions\/18807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}