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Regional publishers in deal over council job ads

Regional publishers have struck a deal with Scottish councils for all local authority jobs north of the border to appear on their own job sites.

There had been fears that a new combined jobs portal set up by the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) would seriously hit recruitment advertising rates on local papers.

A report by a committee of MPs earlier this year said the site, MyjobScotland, had already cost the newspaper industry £5m.

However its local authority ads will now also appear on newspaper job sites including Johnston Press’s new Scotsman.com/jobs portal, recently launched in collaboration with DMGT-owned Jobsite.

Scotsman Publications managing director Michael Johnston said: “Having recently launched a new pan-Scottish jobsite, we are particularly pleased to be bringing such a wealth of job opportunities to all the communities across Scotland that we serve both online and through our 47 local and national Scottish newspapers.”

A number of JP’s Scottish titles, such as The Scotsman, Falkirk Herald, Fife Free Press and the Southern Reporter will carry a marketing campaign to promote the website.

It is understood that CoSLA will also be advertising its jobs on broadcaster STV’s online offering stvjobs.com, on Trinity Mirror portal Scotcareers and Newsquest-owned S1 Jobs.

Mike Ferguson, head of classified at STV, said: “We’re delighted to be working with CoSLA to help them greater utilise the online classified arena.”

Comments

GD (14/09/2009 17:00:54)
Why should Council Tax payers keep the struggling local press alive?
The big local publishers have had their time in the sun, failed to adapt and are now paying the price.
Circulation is down across the board thanks to too little talent being spread too thinly. The public aren’t stupid, they can see their favourite local newspaper is now a shadow of its former self and are voting with their wallets.
Publishers have had councils over a barrel for decades, charging top dollar for publishing dreary public notices, sits vac advertising and so on.
Councils have wised up to this and are now finding it cheaper to produce their own publications.
It’s called competition.

Dibs (14/09/2009 18:19:23)
GD you talk some drivel. Councils using public sector money to set up a website isn’t competition, it’s anti-competitive. Councils think they’ve wised up, but want they seem to ignore is the fact that anything council branded is seen by the public at large as little more than propoganda. Many councils report seeing lower response rates from their own sites and publications than from other media, largely because people benefit from a wider selection of jobs in independent media, and therefore are more appealing and trusted than a one-source site. But if you weren’t so bitter, you’d know that

Chris (15/09/2009 10:33:41)
GD: Local papers should be kept alive and here is why – In some communities, they are the only idependent forum which has the ability to report to the public what is happenning in local councils (bad and good) and at local courts as well as letting them know what is going on in their local area and highlighting issues that exist there. By allowing council’s to publish their own newspapers, they will become propaganda machines which only print “good” news and will avoid the critical reports, the budget problems, the job cuts, why your council tax has to rise etc etc…the list could go on.
They would be free to do what they want without a proper journalist to question it.
GD, whether your local paper is a shadow of its former self or not, the fact is without it, there would be no one holding local authorities to account. Don’t think you can rely on the councillors, they have their own agenda.
Rant over.