Future of Scotland's newspapers to be debated at Holyrood

THE future of the Scottish newspaper industry will be debated at Holyrood today when opposition parties unite against plans to put public notices online.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives are expected to voice their objection to the move by local authorities to advertise on the internet instead of in newspapers.

At a meeting in the Scottish Parliament looking ahead to today's debate, leading figures in the newspaper industry voiced their concerns about the plans launched by Cosla and supported by the SNP government.

Representatives of newspaper groups, including Johnston Press, National Union of Journalist officials and politicians attended the meeting.

Jim Raeburn, the director of the Scottish Newspaper Society

argued that newspapers were a more democratic way of making information known than the internet and said that migration of advertising online was "only for reasons of saving money".