The Herald in Glasgow is expecting to launch an edition for the Amazon Kindle within the next few weeks, following a disagreement with Amazon about delays in the approval process.

The publisher says on its site:

We will be launching a Kindle edition of The Herald soon and are currently going through the approval process with Amazon.

You may have seen our previous notice on this page where we said that Amazon had told us they were putting on hold the launch of any further newspaper publications on the Kindle. We’re delighted to say though that they have now agreed to get The Herald edition up and running as soon as they can.

The Herald previously said that Amazon had stopped approving newspapers for the Kindle – but this claim was denied in a statement to PaidContent:

We are not always able to immediately launch every publisher who contacts us using our more heavyweight integration method. For publishers that want to add their newspaper onto Kindle in self-service fashion, they can also do so via the Amazon Appstore for Android.

• Guardian launches Kindle edition and outlines new mobile plans
• TechCrunch: Amazon opens e-reading to short form with Kindle Singles
• Shanghai Daily available on Amazon Kindle
• Kindle expanding to more than 100 countries
• TechCrunch: Why a Kindle for newspapers won’t save them

Oddly, it looks like the BBC and Politics.co.uk are the only two news organisations to report on Greg Dyke’s appearance at the Liberal Democrat party conference, where the former BBC director-general claimed that the BBC is part of a ‘conspiracy’ preventing the necessary ‘radical changes’ to UK democracy.

[Update: The Belfast Telegraph and The Herald in Glasgow also reported some of his comments - please do send over any other sightings]

Dyke – who was director-general from 2000-2004, before resigning after the verdict of the Hutton Report – made the comments on Sunday at a fringe meeting about MPs’ expenses at the Liberal Democrat party conference.

Dyke said a commission should examine the ‘whole political system,’ but added: “I fear it will never happen because I fear the political class will stop it.”

Major changes he had wanted to make to the BBC’s coverage of politics had been blocked, Dyke claimed. Some of his comments, as reported by the BBC:

“The evidence that our democracy is failing is overwhelming and yet those with the biggest interest in sustaining the current system – the Westminster village, the media and particularly the political parties, including this one – are the groups most in denial about what is really happening to our democracy.”

(…)

“I tried and failed to get the problem properly discussed when I was at the BBC and I was stopped, interestingly, by a combination of the politicos on the board of governors, one of whom was married to the man who claimed for cleaning his moat, the cabinet interestingly – the Labour cabinet – who decided to have a meeting, only about what we were trying to discuss, and the political journalists at the BBC.

“Why? Because, collectively, they are all part of the problem. They are part of one Westminster conspiracy. They don’t want anything to change. It’s not in their interests.”

Politics.co.uk reported a slightly different angle: Dyke also claimed that politicians damaged by the expenses scandal should not be allowed to conduct financial scrutiny of the BBC or other public bodies. Dyke said:

“When I was director-general of the BBC I regularly appeared before select committees and had often quite I thought quite dumb people coming and giving me tough questions.

“How can those people question you now? How can someone who’s flipped their mortgage possibly sit there and start asking me about expenditure at the BBC? Because you just come back to them. I think some people are completely undermined by this. They should go because they can’t do the job.”

• BBC News: Dyke in BBC ‘conspiracy’ claim.
• Politics.co.uk: Dyke: Expenses scandal undermines BBC scrutiny

A blog search picks up a little more mention of the comments and this video interview with Greg Dyke by Mark Thompson (Lib Dem ‘Mark Reckons’ blogger, not the current BBC D-G):

Hat-tip: MediaLens.

• Guardian: Greg Dyke’s LTN group to bid for national TV network
• #Citywot: Journalists to debate the influence of political reporting – 6pm BST
• POLIS: The BNP and Question Time: How Belgian media handles the extreme right
• PCC director speaks out over Lord Puttnam’s criticisms of regulatory body
• BBC executives’ expenses: the links. Now play!

Yesterday, the Sunday Times reported that a ‘consortium of Scottish businessmen is trying to buy The Scotsman newspaper from the debt-laden Johnston Press’. It claimed:

“Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, has joined forces with Edinburgh financier Ben Thomson and property developer Mark Shaw to acquire the daily.

“Talks have taken place in recent weeks but the two sides are believed to be a long way apart on price. Industry sources say Johnston is holding out for about £40m for The Scotsman, which it bought from the Barclay brothers for £160m in 2005.

(…)

“Sources close to Johnston confirmed an informal approach for the division, which includes Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News, but said there were no plans for a formal sale.”

Also of note is the claim that JP is in discussions with Newsquest, publisher of rival The Herald, ‘about a joint venture to pool resources. Previous attempts to merge the titles were blocked by politicians’.

AllMediaScotland links to the claims here and Shaun Milne comments here.

Like allmediascotland, Journalism.co.uk has received this statement from Johnston Press:

“Johnston Press notes the press speculation regarding the potential disposal of the Scotsman.

“Whilst Company policy is not to comment on such speculation, Johnston Press can confirm that the board does not have any disposal process underway in this regard.”

• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• allmediascotland: Herald Group agrees to voluntary redundancies
• BBC/Milne Media: More than 100 jobs at risk in Scotsman print move
• Newsquest announces 40 job cuts: ‘poor trading conditions’ to blame
• NUJ plans ‘concerted campaign’ against Johnston Press cuts

Craig McGill reflects on news reported on Journalism.co.uk and Allmediascotland regarding changes to freelancing terms at the Herald Group.

McGill suggests the changes, while meaning lower rates for contributors, aren’t as bad as they could be:

“The underlying issue here isn’t actually that of what the Herald titles are paying, it’s one simple fact: freelance journalists for years have allowed themselves to be systematically and consistently lowly paid,” he writes.

It comes down to market forces too, he adds: “If there are too many people (or products) in a market then prices will be low as labour is cheap. If someone has a USP or top skills (for example, bringing in tons of scoops) they should do better.”

But how many freelancers will confront editors offering lower rates with a record of their work and its success?

Full post at this link…

Update: Allmediascotland is reporting that the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is now offering a consultation session with an intellectual property lawyer for freelancers affected by the Herald changes.

• NUJ Scotland launches campaign against ‘amateur’ sport journalists
• allmediascotland: Herald Group agrees to voluntary redundancies
• The Content Makers: How much are freelance journalists getting paid?
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – freelance rates
• Happy Birthday to the Freedom of Information Act

Here are the winners from last night’s Amnesty International Media Awards; nominees and judges were reported here. The awards, designed to recognise ‘excellence in human rights reporting’, feature ten categories spread across print, broadcast and online journalism.

Gaby Rado Memorial Award
Aleem Maqbool, BBC News

International Television & Radio
World’s Untold Stories:  The Forgotten People, CNN, Dan Rivers and Mary Rogers

Nations & Regions
The Fight for Justice, The Herald Magazine by Lucy Adams

National newspapers
MI5 and the Torture Chambers of Pakistan, The Guardian by Ian Cobain

New media
Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances, Wikileaks, Julian Assange

Periodicals – consumer magazines
The ‘No Place for Children’ campaign, New Statesman, Sir Al Aynsley Green, and Gillian Slovo

Periodicals – newspaper supplements
Why do the Italians Hate Us? The Observer Magazine, Dan McDougall and Robin Hammond

Photojournalism
No One Much Cares, Newsweek, Eugene Richards

Radio
Forgotten: The Central African Republic, BBC Radio 4 – Today Programme, Edward Main, Ceri Thomas, Mike Thomson

Television documentary and docu-drama
Dispatches: Saving Africa’s Witch Children, Channel 4 / Red Rebel Films / Southern Star Factual, Mags Gavan, Joost Van der Valk, Alice Keens-Soper, Paul Woolwich

Television news
Kiwanja Massacre: Congo, Channel 4 News / ITN, Ben De Pear, Jonathan Miller, Stuart Webb and Robert Chamwami

Special award
This year’s Special Award for Journalism Under Threat was awarded to Eynulla Fәtullayev, from Azerbaijan.

• #Amnestyawards: A reminder of the content in the paywall chatter
• Webby success for FT.com and BBC News
• Nominations open for Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards 2010
• News teams nominated for 2011 BAFTAs
• War correspondents’ awards adds online journalism prize

A new survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers has suggested that readers interested in finance and sport showed a ‘relatively high willingness’ to pay for this type of content online.

“But overall, consumers were not prepared to pay as much for online content as for a traditional paper, and ‘would choose free content when the quality was comparable or sufficient for their purpose’,” says the Herald’s report.

Full story at this link…

• The Australian: Australian journalism may need government support in wake of Fairfax cuts, says veteran
• Pay walls for news will produce ‘more corpses than successes’, says report
• FT.com: Online consumers will accept ads for free content, says survey
• The Media Business: Consumers see the true picture when ads disappear
• Knight Center: What the Waco Tribune-Herald has learned from its premium content model

Shaun Milne sees the soon-to-be launched HeraldScotland site – a merger of the Herald and Sunday Herald websites – as a new opportunity: for design, for the papers to boost their audiences and for journalism graduates.

Full post at this link…

• allmediascotland: Herald and Sunday Herald to merge websites
• ‘A sad day for Scottish Journalism’: job cuts at Herald&Times and BBC Scotland
• NYTimes.com: NYTimes and IHT consider web merger
• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• 10,000 Words: MSNBC pushing the envelope of design

Last night saw the 2009 Newspaper Awards (nominations for the prizes can be seen here) with BBC News jointly winning best electronic news site alongside Times Online – good work for a non-newspaper.

The other digital accolade went to the Herald Express and thisissouthdevon for ‘Rock Stars’, the paper’s online drive to create a new band; while the Cambridge News scooped best regional paper and The Times was named best national newspaper.

Congratulations to the award winners – a full list of which can be viewed on the awards’ website.

• British Press Awards – the winners
• NYTimes.com and BBC scoop prizes at Webby awards
• British Press Award winners 2009
• Obituary awards go online
• Scoopland: Alternative NUJ Regional Press Award Winners

Following the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) submission of a list of applications for voluntary redundancy at the Scotland-based Newsquest Herald Group, all but one of the names were accepted, Allmediascotland.com reports.

Further names have now been added (which takes the total to just above 40) – and will be confirmed after a meeting between the newspaper and the NUJ on Thursday, according to Allmediascotland.

The successful applications include Ian Bruce, the defence correspondent at the Herald, and Alan Campbell, sports writer at the Sunday Herald. Full story...

• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• Media is Social: What the Herald’s new deal says about freelance journalism
• All change at the Telegraph: integration continues
• AllMediaScotland: Glasgow local paper closes after 14 years
• allmediascotland: Herald and Sunday Herald to merge websites

UK broadsheet the Daily Telegraph has outsourced some of its production work to Pagemasters, a company based in Rhodes, western Sydney.

The company, owned by news agency Australian Associated Press, will copy edit and layout raw copy for the Telegraph’s travel, motoring and money pages as well as parts of The Sunday Telegraph.

The move is intended to “save on night and overtime penalties for workers in Britain and get more expensive staff off its books”, writes the Herald. Full story…

• #followjourn: @kellyrose/freelance
• Paperhouse: The Telegraph’s ‘financially contrary’ newsroom
• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• Telegraph.co.uk: Peter Foster responding to China Daily’s claims
• Sydney Morning Herald tries to shore up print sales with iPad app

Two Connecticut dailies facing closure have been rescued after a new buyer for the titles was found.

Michael Schroeder, owner of Central Connecticut Communications, will buy The Bristol Press and The Herald of New Britain at a time when some media commentators are calling for US state aid to help ailing newspapers.

• Reuters: Government aid could save US newspapers
• Trinity Mirror to close or sell Northampton and Long Eaton titles
• allmediascotland: Herald and Sunday Herald to merge websites
• Press Gazette: Press Gazette bought by Progressive Media
• NYTimes: Tribune employees start protest blog against job cuts

All staff at Newsquest’s three Glasgow titles, the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times – bar a handful of senior management roles – have been made redundant and told to reapply for their jobs in a move to cut 30-40 posts.

The announcement follows the appointment yesterday of Donald Martin as editor-in-chief across all three titles.

According to a blog post by Shaun Milne, staff have been put on 90-day notice, as part of plans to integrate the three titles. “[T]he titles will adopt a 24/7 approach from a single operation taking in the web, evening, daily and Sunday titles,” writes Milne (in reference to one of the industry’s worst kept secrets this year…)

The announcement comes as BBC Scotland said it would axe 70 jobs, including an expected 20 from news and current affairs – this figure is on top of the 96 redundancies implemented in September, a release from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said.

The NUJ chapel at BBC Scotland has sent a letter to controller Ken MacQuarrie protesting against the proposed job losses.

In a release, Pete Wishart MP, SNP Westminster Culture spokesperson, said the cuts marked ‘a sad day for Scottish journalism’.

Commenting on the Herald&Times cuts, Wishart said:

“Any decision that threatens news coverage and quality is clearly troubling and these cut backs are a backward step by the group’s owners.

“When Newsquest acquired these newspapers they made a commitment to develop and invest in them, regrettably those words do not seem to have been backed up by investment.”

• Newsquest announces 40 job cuts: ‘poor trading conditions’ to blame
• Guardian: ‘This was not a redundancy announcement’
• Trinity Mirror to close or sell Northampton and Long Eaton titles
• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• NUJ invites News International journalists to meeting

The Herald&Times newspaper group is advertising for an editor-in-chief to replacing outgoing Herald editor Charles McGhee.

The ad states the new role will be involved with editorial operations across the Herald, Sunday Herald and Glasgow Evening Times – renewing speculation that the group is to merge the daily and Sunday titles into one seven-day operation.

• Newsquest announces 40 job cuts: ‘poor trading conditions’ to blame
• ‘A sad day for Scottish Journalism’: job cuts at Herald&Times and BBC Scotland
• Johnston Press at centre of bid speculation but denies ‘any disposal process underway’ for the Scotsman
• EPUK: Herald&Times industrial action possible after introduction of new ‘group multimedia desk’
• BBC/Milne Media: More than 100 jobs at risk in Scotsman print move

McGhee steps down after two years in the role, which he took up in January 2006.

• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• Media Release: BBC Trust approves BBC budget for 2009/10
• Mirror.co.uk: Tribute to Sunday Mirror correspondent killed in Afghanistan
• Pew: Egypt protests prove biggest international story in a single week since 2007
• Slate.com: Building the ‘world’s first mass inaugral address’

Have just noticed The Herald is now featuring monthly and weekly web stats for the site alongside a ‘most popular story’ list at the bottom of its homepage.

The current figures suggest 259,215 visits and 1,039,215 page views for the site last week.

They also show 492,914 site visits for April, with 4,479,649 page views.

• How sticky are UK newspaper sites? 62.8 per cent of users look at just one page, says Alexa
• Behind the scenes: Telegraph.co.uk’s redesign
• Traffic soars to Times Online blogs
• Sky News claims 58 per cent traffic increase from last year
• Newspaper Society: Round-up of record web traffic for local media titles covering riots