Readers in the Western Isles will have to wait until at least the afternoon from now on to get their favourite newspapers in their hands.
Publishing industry chiefs claim a planned hike in air charter charges would have cost them about £6 to send each copy of the thousands of daily newspapers to the Outer Hebrides.
The hunt is now on to find a lower-cost carrier or an alternative to the early morning “paper plane” which could see bundles being sent by seaplane or even by speedboat.
For the last three years, daily papers were flown from Aberdeen to Stornoway and Benbecula using a Loganair charter flight. Now the plan is take to them by road instead to Ullapool to catch the ferry to Stornoway which will arrive just before lunch.
Extra distributors have been hired to take the papers directly to outlying areas of Lewis and to the Isle of Harris. A postbus will take them to Uig. But many readers in the islands will not get their daily paper until late afternoon or, if there are any delays, until the following day.
That has angered many people in the islands, where newspaper readership is thought to be higher than the national average, who claim that it is a serious step back.
Retired mill worker Malcolm Mackay, 74, has been heading into Stornoway six mornings a week for a decade for newspapers for himself, his wife Ina, and four neighbours. He said: “I’m disgusted. This is the kind of shoddy service we had in the 1950s. You get the impression the people who make these decisions don’t care about the Western Isles. The service to Shetland of course is continuing with no problems.”
Island councillor Rae Mackenzie stormed: “It is extremely disappointing to find out that another service is being hit in these islands. It is just weeks since the council withdrew air services to the Southern Isles, taking us back 40 years, and now it seems we are going to have a service for the delivery of daily papers which turns the clock back to the 1950s. Scottish newspapers will be available in foreign countries earlier that we can receive them in our own country!
“Whereas the rest of the world is looking for faster, more efficient, services, we seem to be going backwards. This is out of the hands of the local shops and suppliers. Is it not possible for both Loganair,and the mainland wholesaler to come to some agreement? After all, no doubt they have made considerable profits in the past from these islands.”
The Scottish Newspaper Society (SNS), which represents all the main daily newspaper publishers, insists it has been trying to find a cost effective way to take the 7,500 daily newspapers to the islands – so far without success.
It has emerged that Glasgow-based Loganair planned to increase the price twice in the near future, virtually doubling the current cost.
SNS director Jim Raeburn explained: “The industry regards it as very important to provide a service as best it can and to have papers selling in the islands at the same price as the rest of the country. However, the cost of a copy of a newspaper delivered by Loganair would on average have risen to about £6.”
Such a price would be completely non-viable, he said, and had forced the industry to look at what they could do. The papers will now be transferred from wholesaler John Menzies in Inverness to the islands by road and ferries.
Bundles of papers for North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist will be sent on the ferry MV Hebrides from Skye to Lochmaddy. Every second day, it arrives later so the papers will not reach the southernmost islands until after the shops shut.
Mr Raeburn brushed off suggestions that they were not serving the islands well. He said: “We are maintaining a service to all of Scotland – the only difference will be time of delivery. We are doing our most to maintain a service and to avoid quite dramatic losses. The element of subsidy that would be needed would be unsustainable.”
He declined to say how much the airline was to charge – saying only it was “a large amount”.
However, Scott McCulloch of News International, the chairman of the SNS distribution committee, confirmed that 7,500 copies were sent to the Western Isles each day. If each one was to cost SNS about £6, that would suggest the airline’s charges were to rise to more than £40,000 a day.
Loganair chief operating officer Phil Preston would not comment on the specific point-of-sale price increases for individual units transported as freight cargo, with air transit only making up one part of the overall distribution network.
He said: “We came to a mutual agreement with the newspaper distribution committee SNS to end our Stornoway and Benbecula contract. The dedicated freight charter service, which we have been providing for SNS since the previous supplier Highland Airways went out of business, has become unsustainable for both parties.
“The contract with SNS was operating at a heavily discounted rate, following the collapse of Highland Airways, in anticipation of finding customers wanting to move freight off the island by air on the return leg of the freighter’s journey. We are disappointed no such customer has been available in the three years which the service was operational and the cost of the empty return leg to Aberdeen was a major factor in this decision.”
There will be no job losses at Loganair as a result of the decision and together with SNS, they had worked to find an alternative distribution channel by air but SNS had decided to use the CalMac ferry service. The changes will have no impact on any of the airline’s scheduled passenger services or their dedicated Royal Mail freight deliveries to the islands.
Mr Preston added: “Loganair still has a strong relationship with SNS, using their services to supply the Shetland Islands with newspapers and we look forward to working with them well into the future.”
Stornoway councillor Angus McCormack thought people in the islands were very keen to have a daily paper to read but were equally keen to read it at as early a time in the day as possible. He said: “I would welcome some discussion around just exactly what Loganair is looking for in terms of the return trip to see if a solution might be found. I understand that moves are afoot to speak with the distributor.”
Uist councillor David Blaney questioned why the papers could not be put on Flybe’s scheduled passenger flights from Glasgow to Benbecula. He said: “For long enough papers would always share the passenger flight from Glasgow as they carried on doing on Saturdays and Sundays. So I do wonder why papers to the Uists and Benbecula cannot revert to sharing direct flights from Glasgow as they always used to.”
Meanwhile Mr Raeburn conceded that delivery of newspapers to the islands was always loss-making but something the industry had been happy to do until costs began to spiral.
He said: “We don’t blame Loganair. They say the flight was a serious lossmaker so they cannot bear that any more than we can. However, we do appreciate the effect on readers. As far as a solution is concerned, we have an open mind. If there was a transportation solution which was financially viable, the industry would look at it.
“Seaplanes operate to Oban. You never know.”
Time for the Scottish Government to show how much they care for the islands and what value they place on remote communities.
The Western Isles – the land that time forgets.
Since nobody complains about having to wait until Monday for their Sunday paper I can’t see what all the fuss is about! Lol!
Donald, RET increasing by 10%, Planning applications increasing by 20%, Legal fees for court litigation re rural schools now running at over £100k, no help with inter-island flights now with so many unintended consequences, sub-sea inter-connector not likely to be connecting, and more pain and further cuts round the corner. This is hardly the way to treat a remote island authority – how would our MP/MSP react if we had a Labour administration in control at Holyrood? Only asking the question.
Bearing in mind that the true cost of a newspaper is, and always has been, much higher than we pay for it.
Why not set up a community company, invest in digital printing kit and then have the newspaper companies email over the artwork in the evening where a team could run off the prints locally and distribute directly from the island
Well said Andrew walker what would they say they would be jumping up and down making a hell of a noise
If the distributor Menzies are based in Inverness why have the papers transported to Aberdeen then flown to Stornoway when they could be flown from Inverness? It would mean cheaper road transport costs also flight is shorter so surely would be a lot cheaper.
Looks like our politicians and councillors can’t even sort out the distribution of newspapers. A public service that has been in place since anybody can remember.
Time for common sense here stop looking at the cost per paper, but what is being lost to those who value their daily read.
Come on you political representatives show us your worth and get this sorted. You might even restore some trust from the people that you were elected to represent.
Well if it means fewer people reading hateful rags like the Mail and Sun, then all the better.
It’s been like this in Orkney for the last 3 or 4 years with the papers getting in about midday unless they’re late from south into Inverness or the A9 north is slow or it’s wild in the Firth when they might arrive at the back of 4 or not at all.
“Have l got old Newspapers for You”"
Would it not be possible to share a plane with the Royal Mail. I have no doubt that there are some issues that would need to be reconciled but surely with a bit of creative thinking they could be overcome, even if it meant sticking a stamp on the bundles and having them collected from the sorting office.
ghillie, there is no way a crown service like the royal mail would allow newspapers to be carried. it was certainly looked at a few years ago and it was said to be illegal. the potential conseqeunces of not just deliberate attempts to interrupt the mail but errors would mean that can never be agreed to. it is going to take an entrepreneur or council sweeteners to loganair to sort this one .
I see the MP has finally sent a letter about this matter. Better late than never, I suppose.
There is no one quite like him for turning every potential drama into a crisis. We saw it in the Range, the flights issue and now this! He ignores every tiny problem and then slips on his Superman kit when it becomes serious instead of doing what a grown-up politician would do and dealing with it before it becomes a real issue. Pathetic!
Ghillie
I know my memory is not what it used to be, so appologies if I have this wrong. I seem to recall in the late 50′s and early 60′s that both newspapers and mail arrived together on the morning British European Airways flight from Glasgow. The arrangement worked then and there’s no good reason why it shouldn’t work now.
Tormod Caol, if my memory serves me correctly, in the early 60s the papers came in on the paper plane at around 4 am. Not on the BEA flight.
Guga.
You are correct to point out the introduction of a ‘paper plane’ in the early sixties (62/63?). The first aircraft to fly this service was a 4 seat Piper Aztec owned by William Logan (Construction) and piloted by Capt Duncan MacIntosh. This was the start of what we know today as Loganair. Not sure about arriving as early as 4am, most of the time they seemed to be touching down just before 8 o’clock. Perhaps someone involved in collecting the papers could verify that.
Even then they faced the same problems that they have today i.e. the lack of payload on the return trip. For the princely sum of a tenner the redoubtable Capt MacIntosh would sqeeze you into an empty seat and drop you off at Glasgow Airport. Quite unofficial, of course!
Prior to the arrival of Loganair (50′s and very early 60′s) I’m pretty certain that mail and newspapers happily co-existed on the same BEA flight out of Glasgow, arriving Stornoway via Benbecula about 11am.
Perhaps we are both correct on this one. Is that possible on this blog?
Guga.
You are correct to point out the introduction of a ‘paper plane’ in the early sixties (62/63?). The first aircraft to fly this service was a 4 seat Piper Aztec owned by William Logan (Construction) and piloted by Capt Duncan MacIntosh. This was the start of what we know today as Loganair. Not sure about arriving as early as 4am, most of the time they seemed to be touching down just before 8 o’clock. Perhaps someone involved in collecting the papers could verify that.
Even then they faced the same problems that they have today i.e. the lack of payload on the return trip. For the princely sum of a tenner the redoubtable Capt MacIntosh would sqeeze you into an empty seat and drop you off at Glasgow Airport. Quite unofficial, of course!
Prior to the arrival of Loganair (50′s and very early 60′s) I’m pretty certain that mail and newspapers happily co-existed on the same BEA flight from Glasgow that arrived Stornoway (via Benbecula) at about 11am.
Perhaps we are both correct on this one. Is that possible on this blog?
Tormod Caol, anything is possible when people discuss things in a friendly and rational manner.
You did jog my memory a bit as I remember it was the twin engined Aztec (also known as the Apache) that carried the papers. I actually think the arrival time was nearer 4-30 am, but it may have changed later on. I also remember Captain MacIntosh and the ten quid jump seat flights. Incidentally weren’t BEA flying Rapides, then Dakotas into Stornoway from the early 50s?
Happier days on the island then.
Guga,
Don’t have much recollection of the Rapides but they could have been used in the very early days of BEA. I do have vivid memories of Dakotas belching smoke and flames as the Pratt & Witney engines spluttered into life while Sandy Murray stood by with a rather inadequate looking fire extinguisher in case things got out of hand. The ‘Daks’ were replaced by Viscounts (1961?) and I think they would still be the largest aircraft to operate scheduled services out of SY.
Happier days? Probably, but that could be an age thing as the carefree days of youth are replaced by the cynicism of old age