Passionate about technology, media and chocolate eclairs, I've worked in web and print for over twenty years and now run a digital media consultancy in Scotland.
Today heralds the arrival of a new news product in Scotland. The Caledonian Mercury is being called a daily newspaper, but there’s no queue at the checkout to buy it and it doesn’t have traditional deadlines.
Two things separate it from ordinary dailies. One, it’s free, and two, it’s only available on the internet.
It’s the brainchild of Stewart Kirkpatrick, who formerly edited the Scotsman website, and he has pooled much of his contributing talent from ex-Scotsman staff.
And talent is the watchword here. Stewart is branding his newspaper ‘intelligent journalism’ and he is hoping for intelligent response, even offering prizes for the best comments.
‘Proudly Scottish’, it launched on the anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth, the anniversary of the birth of the Scotsman (so I’m told), and for the techies, the anniversary of the birth of the Apple Mac. In an ironic twist of technological fate, it actually went live about six hours ahead of deadline. Oh, and the name, is revived from Scotland’s first newspaper, the Mercurius Caledonius, apparently.
Digital media consultant Craig McGill has posted a review of the ‘first issue’ over at Contently Managed and makes some interesting observations.
But let’s not be coy here. The question everyone is asking is how will it make money. Newspapers are struggling aren’t they? Yes they are. But this isn’t technically a newspaper. It’s a journalism website. Breaking news will come from links to those who already do it well. The premise is ‘do what you do best and link to the rest.’ The web has made this kind of collaboration not only possible, but journalistically fruitful.
The Mercury doesn’t have a team of hard-nosed news reporters, it has a select team of journalists. But no city centre offices, no printing presses, no huge teams of salespeople and admin staff.
I’ve said before this is the best time for journalism. Print publishing has got a hardware legacy. Colour printing presses, the last big technical innovation in newspapers before the web, are expensive to run, not least for the fact that the products they produce are rising in cost and decreasing in popularity. It’s the medium that’s dying, not the content.
So will it succeed?
The Caledonian Mercury has a staff of three and a handful of freelancers. Compare that to any daily heavyweight newspaper, and you’ve got your answer.
