Teenagers should receive a year-long subscription to their favourite newspapers as an 18th birthday present, a leading Scottish politician has said.

Pauline McNeill, member for Glasgow Kelvin and Labour’s culture spokeswoman, claims the move would hopefully get young adults into the habit of reading a newspaper on a daily basis.

Writing in yesterday’s Scotsman, Ms McNeill believes the country “needs to act” with radical thinking to stem the downturn in circulation and ad revenues among Scotland’s newspaper industry.

A similar scheme was introduced last year in France by President Nicolas Sarkozy whereby the French government pay for delivery of millions of newspapers to teenagers.

Ms McNeill writes: “On their 18th birthday, teenagers should receive a free year-long subscription to their favourite newspaper.

“We need to act because the newspaper industry is facing the biggest crisis in its history.

“In Scotland, we have one of the most competitive markets on the planet. Seventeen daily newspapers are printed for a population of five million.

“But the circulation of virtually all newspapers is falling and profits are down.”

According to The Scotsman’s report, the Labour party says it would cost £9.3m excluding delivery costs if the Scottish Government was forced to pay for copies at 50p per copy.

Comments

Journo1 (12/01/2010 10:31:25)
And the Scottish Newspaper industry can afford to give paid-for newspapers away free for a year can it?

Chris Youett (12/01/2010 16:00:01)
While I don’t have a problem with then principle ofteenagers being given a free subscription for a year on their 18th birdays, the media will not stop falling circulations until is acknowledges the damage is largelly self-inflicting.
Charging realistic subs for online services is the quickest way to stop circulation and revenue falls. If IBM or Microsoft took over any UK media owner, this is the first thing the new managements would do.