Newspaper publishers from as far apart as Orkney and Annan will gather in Glasgow tomorrow (Thursday) for the first ever Scottish Newspaper Society weekly publishers’ conference.
The event is hosted by Media Scotland, publishers of 20 local weeklies including the Stirling Observer and Ayrshire Post, at their Central Quay offices.
Attending will be over 20 representatives from most of the SNS’s weekly publishers, Scottish Provincial Press, Romanes Media and Johnston Press as well as the smaller independents like The Orcadian, Dunoon Observer and the Annandale Observer.
Amongst the speakers will be former Herald editor Charles McGhee, now the Scottish board member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, Police Scotland’s new head of corporate communications Alison Shields and MediaForce’s regional director Simon Ridley-Thomas.
There will also be presentations on digital publishing trends from Laura Kane of BIG Partnership, logistics from Grant Jordan and Mark Burnell of Menzies Distribution and measuring advertising effectiveness from Dianne Newman, the UK head of business development at RAM (Research and Analysis of Media).
SNS director John McLellan said “The future well-being of Scottish weekly publishers is not only crucial for the news business as a whole but for the fabric of communities across the country and I hope this first SNS weeklies’ conference can become an annual event.”