Newsquest vows to drop bulk sales for Scottish titles

Newsquest’s Scottish papers – The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times – have said they will remove all bulk sales from their circulation ?gures.

The group’s managing director, Tim Blott, said: “Bulk sales are a distraction from our excellent circulation performance. All three titles are selling more full-priced copies year-on-year. “In concentrating on what the newspaper industry terms ‘actively purchased copies’ as opposed to bulk sales, we feel we will be providing a more accurate picture of our circulation performance.

“We will be urging other publishers in Scotland to adopt a similar approach which we feel is in the best long-term interest of the industry.” But John McGurk, group editorial director of Scotsman Publications, told Press Gazette: “Bulk sales is not just an issue for Scottish publishers; it is a national issue.”

Scotland on Sunday editor John McLellan said he was not satis?ed with a clari?cation run by the Sunday Herald this week following a news story about his former school which mentioned him.

The Sunday Herald published in its issue this Sunday: “In a news report about Hutchesons’ Grammar School last week, we may have inadvertently given the impression that John McLellan, editor of Scotland on Sunday, had been motivated by anti-English sentiment in his paper’s coverage of the affairs of his former school. We regret if such an impression was created and fully accept that McLellan is not anti-English either personally or in his journalism.”

McLellan told Press Gazette: “I am unhappy at the way they have handled this. For an editor to be accused of discrimination is very serious. It is against the code of conduct. I don’t regard this as the end of the matter.”