Scottish News Consortium wins Scottish News Contract

March 25, 2010

The Scottish News Consortium (SNC) is delighted by today’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announcement that it has selected the alliance to produce Scottish news for STV and create the UK’s first fully integrated TV-to-internet news service.

The SNC, which comprises Scotland’s three leading newspaper companies, DC Thomson, the Herald & Times Group, and Johnston Press, and independent TV production company Tinopolis, was selected following a rigorous appraisal by DCMS supported by Ofcom, and by panel of leading media experts.

The win for the consortium will lead to the biggest shake up of news in Scotland for decades. The SNC is committed to delivering much more local and regional news and plans much more interaction with its audience than any other news service. Its aim is to achieve a real increase in the audience for Scottish news. ScotlandFirst, the proposed name for the news service, will be a fully integrated television and online service with features including:

• news where and when it happens with 50 additional video journalists situated around the country in consortium news offices;
• cross-promotion to a state of the art website providing news from ScotlandFirst, encouraging audience comment and involvement and linking visitors on to a network of over 130 existing local and regional news websites;
• making the news more relevant for young people by interacting with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and by working with schools to encourage pupils to run their own newspapers and websites;
• engaging the people of Scotland with fresh new programming such as “News from Your Neighbourhood” which will be a 2-3 minute slot produced by local citizens from across the nation to let them raise issues or talk about the things that matter to them.

The final stage in the process before ScotlandFirst can begin its service is for the SNC to agree separate contracts with DCMS and STV.

In its announcement today, DCMS said: “SNC set out an imaginative and innovative cross-platform approach to news provision adding the reporting resources of its partner newspapers and a new website to a strong TV proposition. The proposals represented a clear sense of public value associated with a credible news alternative to the BBC in Scotland. The planned website would act as a portal to 130 local newspaper partner websites.”