#scottishnews

Trust? Qu. Who does the population trust more? 1.Bankers 2.Journalists

Trust in Journalists Siu Source: ipsosMORI February 2013

Role of Journalist In order for a journalist to fulfil their duty of providing the people with the information they need to be FREE and SELF-GOVERNING, they must follow these guidelines: *Journalism's first obligation is to the truth. *Its first loyalty is to the citizens. Its essence is discipline of verification. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover. *It must serve as an independent monitor of power. *It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. It must strive to make the significant interesting, and relevant. *It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience. Source: The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosensteil

Why Scottish Times? Scotland deserves better than 21%

ST Current & Mission Current: Publish news regularly but on a small scale Facebook likes, 2078 Twitter followers and Google profile Mission: To become a trusted Scottish digital media outlet with a profitable business model Simples?

ST’s Journey so far

Why lack of trust?: ‘bolotix’ Today’s media context: Ethics: Leveson, Saville enquiry.. Weapons of mass distraction: 'war on terror‘, ‘dog attacks’ instead of real stories of national interest *Financial sector fraud: City corruption: Libor, IDSAfix?, 'mis-selling', etc. *One of the largest advertising spenders in both print and digital False statistics: GDP, inflation etc. How many recoveries have we had now? Constitution: In Scotland - hostility towards constitutional change and independence In a nutshell: Not doing their job

Problems getting worse More unemployed journalists = more control over content Falling circulation = more editorial influence from advertisers All other printed Scottish News sources are losing between daily readers every 2 years. e.g. Sunday Herald (Dec ) readership down from 28,800 to 24, 900 (2020 will have zero circulation).

Revenue crisis Print readership falling, digital readers on rise For every £1 increase in digital revenues £21 in print income is lost (Johnston Press)

Solutions State vouchers proposed by Pat Kane (Cultural commentator) Government issues citizens with voucher to pay for news subscription (Scandinavian model) Problems with introduction? 1)Trust: Only 21% of people trust journalists (taxpayer revolt against state subsidies) 2)Timing: Austerity (taxpayer revolt) 3)Regulation: Conflict of interest (government is also regulator) 4)Democracy: Voucher system works in Scandinavian countries where private sector / judiciary / government all separate and no problems of conflict of interest as in UK. 5)Privatisation: Doctors (89% trust) private but journalists in public sector? 6)Innovation: If you have public funded journalism will that negatively impact on private sector innovation?

ST’s Proposal Problem: Politicians, pundits and editors tell us what Scots think about a lot of subjects. How do they know? Have they asked? Do they make it up? Solution: Our ST Survey platform will provide reliable information about what voters actually think and believe in real-time all available from a single source Example of benefits: Independence referendum: Large amount of Scottish opinion data in the public domain could help blow the referendum debate wide open

Democratisation: How we will do it 1. Readers take the survey – 2. We write the article ‘Weighted’ data: means we can talk with authority about what the people of Scotland really think and believe Increasing accessibility: hundreds of survey findings available to readers across a wide range of subjects and in one place Trend analysis: readers can track changes in public opinion in real time - responses to news events

ST reader surveys drive content

ST reader survey drive content

Who benefits? Putting all this information into the public domain in real time will help: Citizens: Scots abroad, activists, teachers etc. Businesses: All sectors Civic Society: Trade Union, parties, charities etc. Result = Better relationship between citizens, organisations and institutions

The profit bit - £s to pay staff Products and partnership opportunities surveys: fast turnaround, affordable access, accurate rapid focus groups: sample targetting trend charts: place on 3 rd party websites consumer panels trend analysis and forecasting: content products news and trends agency (syndication) Investors or partners? Let’s talk.

Collaboration: Help us beat 21% Join us and make ST vision a reality 1. Serious partners, investors, journalists, media strategists, developers and others 2. Summit to discuss getting the project up and running 3. Contact us

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