Sunday Herald to relaunch as news magazine?

There is speculation in Scotland that the Newsquest-owned Sunday Herald may be relaunched as a news magazine, allmediascotland reports.

It suggests the revamp could take place for the January 9 issue and sources suggest the newspaper might even be re-titled the New Sunday Herald and have its sections folded into one, magazine-style publication on relatively high quality paper.

allmediascotland says it put a series of questions to the Herald & Times Group, but a spokesperson replied, simply, "No comment."

Last month the Sunday Herald won the 'Weekly Newspaper' title in an Europe-wide newspaper design competition.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Sunday Herald's average sale in Scotland last month was 41,314, down 3.9 per cent on 12 months previously.

Newsquest to cut at least 10 more jobs in Scotland

At least ten editorial posts at the Newsquest-owned Herald & Times Group - publishers of The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times newspapers in Glasgow - are at risk of redundancy, as part of a cost-saving exercise, allmediascotland reports today.

The reason for the planned redundancies, says the company, is "current trading conditions and the outlook for the business in 2011".

The company told allmediascotland it "would seek volunteers for redundancy where possible in the [newspaper] division and overall fewer than 20 employees would be affected" and that "like most regional newspaper groups, is has been badly affected by a downturn in advertising".

Scottish Sunday paper defeats super-injunction bid

The Sunday Herald has claimed a victory for press freedom after defeating a legal move aimed at stopping it reporting a dispute at Strathclyde University, allmediascotland reports.

The Herald says that lawyers acting for the university sought a super-injunction against the paper but failed to convince the judge, Lord Pentland. The paper went on to report the dispute, alongside an article, headed: 'Sunday Herald beats off 'super-injunction' bid'. It said: “The super-injunction would not only have prevented the newspaper from reporting many of the facts surrounding the case, but it would have also banned us from reporting the gagging order itself.

“Legal bids of this nature have been controversial south of the border, where many media commentators and lawyers have expressed concern over what they see as attempts to impose a judge-made privacy law without recourse to Parliament.”

The Sunday Herald says that lawyers for Strathclyde University sought an interdict (the Scottish equivalent of an injunction) against it, despite the newspaper and the university agreeing the form of words on the dispute. “However, the university wanted to go further and sought a permanent undertaking that the Sunday Herald would not return to the story at some point in future without giving advance notice of its intention to do so."

The paper added: “The university also asked Lord Pentland at the Court of Session to prevent publication of any mention of the interdict itself. The judge dismissed the application for interdict and the attempt at a ‘super-injunction’ as unnecessary restrictions on responsible journalism.”

The paper's editor, Richard Walker, is quoted saying Lord Pentland’s decision was an ‘important victory’ for press freedom and a welcome departure from recent decisions in England, where super-injunctions are becoming more common.

Worse conditions for re-employed Herald staff

A longer working day and reductions in holidays and sick pay entitlement is the likely future awaiting staff at The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times in Glasgow, should they be re-employed after 250 staff were made redundant and asked to reapply for their jobs, allmediascotland reports today.
It is believed that up to 40 posts will be cut on the three Newsquest-owned titles. According to allmediascotland so-called ‘group news reporters’ - working across The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times - will be required to be available any day of the week, “as necessary for the business”. They will be paid between £25,000 and £35,000 a year.
The NUJ is continuing to explore a legal challenge against the mass redundancy move, which has been criticised by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond. See Can Politicians Save Journalists Jobs?