News UK has announced the re-naming of its operations north of the border as ‘News Scotland’ in a move the company says emphasises its commitment to its Scottish business and to Scotland.
The company, which began printing newspapers in Scotland 30 years ago, says the new name signifies “a commitment to Scottish news and the topics and issues that are uniquely relevant to Scotland.”
News Scotland will have more autonomy to operate as its own entity, while maintaining close ties to the business’s London headquarters.
The re-brand comes as News UK’s Scottish titles are performing strongly across the market. According to the latest National Readership Survey (Jan-Dec 2015) of print, desktop and laptop readership, with 544,000 adults each day The Scottish Sun is Scotland’s most read daily paper. The Times Scotland grew readership by four per cent in the last 12 months, with 56,000 daily readers. The Sunday Times Scotland remains the number one quality title in the Sunday market, reaching 117,000 adults.
News Scotland says the new identity underlines its dedication to investment in Scotland and follows the launch of its training programme, News Academy Scotland, by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson in December last year. News Academy Scotland is a mentoring programme operating in conjunction with Scottish schools and universities to inspire the next generation of journalists.
News UK chief executive Rebekah Brooks said: “The launch of News Scotland comes at a time when our titles and digital offerings are excelling in the market. One in five adults in Scotland now read our papers – I’m extremely proud of this and have no doubt that we’ll continue to be front and centre of the Scottish news agenda in this exciting new era.”
News Scotland General Manager, Richard Bogie, said: “This is the start of a new chapter for our Scottish business and products and underscores our great belief and confidence in our Scotland operations. Our digital audiences are growing at an unprecedented rate and our commercial business is thriving. We made huge inroads with our exceptional coverage during the Scottish referendum and General Election and this re-brand signals a further commitment to delivering the best news, commentary and analysis for the issues unique to Scotland.”