Scotsman editor John McLellan has defended the ongoing merger of the paper’s news operations with that of sister title Scotland on Sunday, saying it would “stop duplication.”

The move to combined news, features, sports, business and politics desks at the two titles is expected to lead to 25 job losses.

Senior posts at risks of redundancy include those of features editor, senior assistant editor and associate editor at The Scotsman.

The Scottish political editor at The Scotsman, Hamish Macdonell, has also opted for voluntary redundancy. A single politics desk is being created across the two titles.

But in an interview with PR week, Mr McLennan defended the motivation for new seven-day operation.

“Frankly, it’s to save money and stop duplication. We want to create a leaner operation,” he said.

The newly-appointed editor-in-chief of Scotsman Publications said the The Scotsman’s news page layout had already been tweaked to deliver a “change of pace” with each page having a slightly different identity.

He added: “There’s also a feature in the middle of news now – typically a human interest piece as a counterbalance to the heavyweight analysis in news.”

Comments

Observer (26/05/2009 13:42:23)
Why the hell is he being interviewed by PR Week? Was John hoping no journalists would see it, or does he know that PR people love a bit if spin?