Watered down plans for STV News restructure still ‘bad for journalism’
The National Union of Journalists has criticised proposals by Ofcom which would allow STV to axe its separate news programme for the north of Scotland.
However STV has significantly watered down its original plans, following pressure from viewers, politicians and the unions and committed to an agreed percentage of news from the north of Scotland.
The current proposals would produce a single news programme, anchored from Glasgow, setting a minimum quota of 30% on the content which would need to be specific to each licence area.
Ofcom’s consultation on the plans has launched today, and is open until 9 February 2026.
STV says it is seeking to renegotiate its public service broadcasting obligations to save money following a sudden fall in revenue from advertising and commissions in its studio division.
In September it announced plans to cut 60 jobs, of which 30 would be in STV News, and to merge the two separate News at 6 programmes across its two licence areas.
However, it has continued with plans to launch a commercial radio station, costing £500,000 in 2025, and is expected to make a loss in 2026. The radio station will have short hourly news bulletins, which STV is expecting to be produced by existing journalists on top of their current workload. The NUJ is opposing these plans.
Last week it was announced that NUJ members at STV had voted by an overwhelming margin in favour of industrial action over the proposals.
Nick McGowan-Lowe, NUJ national organiser for Scotland, said:
"After months of trying to ignore public and political pressure, STV's revised plans finally recognise the importance of the STV North edition of the News at 6.
"But these watered-down proposals will be cold comfort for viewers in the north of Scotland, or for some of STV News' best-known faces who are currently facing potential redundancy.
"The NUJ opposes these new plans, which are bad for viewers, bad for advertisers, bad for journalism and bad for the STV brand.
"STV should come clean about what it is really trying to do - which is attempting an ill-judged launch of an expensive commercial radio station, paid for by the jobs of journalists, in the middle of a financial crisis caused by its own mismanagement.
"Senior management need to stop and rethink their plans rather than trying to rip up its public service broadcasting obligations."