Will Standard measure up to challenge?

IT HAS LONG been suggested that there is no room on the news-stands for yet another Scottish paper. Yesterday, the launch day of the Scottish Standard, a new 70p weekly national tabloid, it became the literal truth.

In one branch of McColl’s newsagents, a few editions were left lying on the floor while the rest of the established press towered above. In a Glasgow newsagent it was almost invisible, tucked on the bottom rung among the employment press. This, at least, was a step-up from a city centre branch of Safeway, where staff looked baffled when asked for a copy. In others, there was no sign of the new kid on the block.

In a market where impact is all, the Scottish Standard, raised barely a ripple among the newspaper sellers. No advertising posters. No promotional displays.

It was a neglectful birth for what publisher Derek Carstairs, managing director of the Flagship Media Group, hopes will be a successful pro-independence tabloid, the first since the Sun unwrapped itself from the Saltire in 1997 and pinned on New Labour’s red rose.

As support for independence among Scots has slipped from 30 per cent prior to devolution to around 25 per cent today, it is a bold move. Carstairs, Paisley-born but based in Belfast, aims to sell in the region of 25,000 copies, largely through subscription.

The launch editor is Alex MacLeod, a veteran of 22 years at the Sunday Mail, who proclaimed his new paper’s views in a page-one column. Readers were promised "a truly Scottish newspaper, written, edited, printed and owned in Scotland. That makes it unique." The paper has a grand Latin motto, Aut Dictum Aut Solvam, which is a reference to Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot: it means "What I can’t untie, I’ll cut". Politicians and their red tape have been duly warned.

Any reader who picked up yesterday’s paper would be left in no doubt of its allegiance. A Saltire flew above the masthead, the SNP’s distinctive yellow was at the top and bottom of the page and the party’s political pin-up, Dorothy Grace Elder, the former MSP, went head to head with Gwen Stefani, American singer-turned actress, as picture puffs. Weekly newspapers should reflect the news of the previous day, but the IRA’s astonishing offer to execute the killers of Robert McCartney was conspicuous by its absence, a result of the paper’s early printing on Tuesday afternoon.

Inside were a series of political columns, by Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP, Colin Fox, convener of the Scottish Socialist Party, and Allan Burnett, the deputy editor, who declared in an extended column (which no doubt came as a surprise to the population of this sceptred isle) that "Britain is over". Arts, books and leisure were all tackled and there were five pages of sport at the rear of the 48-page paper.

What did industry experts make of it? Crawford Brankin, the launch editor of the Scottish Mirror and co-founder of the East Kilbride Mail, the last newpaper to be launched in Scotland, explains that he had difficulty finding a copy: "The garage I stopped at didn’t have one and the newsagent nearby eventually found them tucked away beside the magazines - well away from the rest of the papers. ‘I wondered what they were, when they came in,’ the newsagent told me.

"Let’s start with the positives. In a relatively short time, Alex Macleod and his team have prepared and produced a 48-page paper from scratch - and that, in itself, takes some doing, believe me. It looks OK. It is clean, plenty of white space and keeps a good typographical discipline throughout. Content is a different matter. Personally, I am not interested in reading slab after slab of SNP propaganda, although I assume the whole reason behind the launch is the confidence that there are enough independence-minded people out there who do want it.

"Commercially, it will stand or fall by advertising and that already looks very light. At a rough count, I made it just over eight pages of advertising - not good in 48 pages - and the fact that they have not managed to sell an advert on page one, invariably the most sought-after in a weekly, does not bode well. However, the Scottish Standard is here, and as staunch supporter of the newsprint media, I hope it stays here."

John Denholm, chairman of the Leith Agency, says he was unimpressed: "I don’t know anything about their business model, about how many copies they need to sell to break even, but I imagine it must be quite low, and if that is the case, then fine. However, after flicking through it, I can’t imagine it appealing to anyone outside the hard-core dyed-in-the-wool SNP supporter. Are there enough of them to support a newspaper? I’m not so sure.

"I also think it won’t do the SNP any good and that is because of the paper’s design. It is so old-fashioned, which will be reflected back on to the party. I think it looks like a cross between a local freesheet and a daily version of The Sunday Post."

Jim Cassidy is managing director of media2k. In his previous career as a newspaperman he launched the Glaswegian, the city’s free newspaper, and edited the Sunday Mail. "My first impressions?" he says. "The Standard desperately needs a transfusion of Grecian 2000 or some good pictures, anything to hide the grey. Was it good? In a word, No. A political scare story as a splash, no news stories that will have the rest of the Scottish press chasing and the sport weak with a lack of focus. The Standard also has more columns than the Pantheon, with some of the columnists just as old. Allan Burnett’s polemic was turgid. Another column like this from Colin Fox and there will be an upsurge in Scots demanding the return of foxhunting, and Marc Horne was a tad tedious. Will the bouncing baby survive? If that’s the best Alex MacLeod and his team can do, no. If Alex and his team are allowed to develop the paper? Perhaps."

At the new paper’s headquarters in Paisley, however, Alex MacLeod, describes himself as "delighted" with the first issue. He agrees there had been hiccups with its distribution: "There will always be teething problems, but we are on to them." He says number two is well in hand and he is confident that the newspaper will settle into a weekly sale of around 40,000.

"It’s sold out at Holyrood which is a good sign," he says, "and the feedback we’ve had from the public has been excellent." Only time will tell if the Scottish Standard will last or be crumpled up and blown away like the Sunday Scot and Business a.m.