The owner of an independently-owned local newspaper based in the Scottish borders said he has had a “lot of interest” since putting the title up for sale.
Jason Marshall launched The Hawick Paper in 2016 after taking voluntary redundancy as editor from the Hawick News, which was closed by owner JPI Media three years later.
Since then he has continued to provide the circa 10,000 population of the remote Scottish town with its own newsbrand dedicated to chronicling the local area and nothing else.
Marshall told Press Gazette he is putting Hawick Paper up for sale while it is “healthy and profitable”.
“I just felt it was time to take things a bit easier, a bit of a slower pace of life… I’ve done my time now, obviously, four decades in newspapers,” he said.
“I’ve had a lot of interest already… it’s fairly positive,” added Marshall, adding he “hopes” this displays investor confidence in local print.
‘100% town specific’ helped paper make money
The Hawick Paper covers news such as a new Center Parcs holiday village in the Scottish borders and the long-awaited launch of a McDonald’s branch in the area.
“We’ve been fighting for a McDonald’s for decades – I know they’re ten-a-penny in London but we don’t have one.”
When The Hawick Paper launched, Marshall felt there was “still a market there for print” but that “generic content that wasn’t town specific” was putting people off existing titles. He made the title “100% town specific”.
“People still like newspapers – they’ve [just] fallen out of love with what is in them.”
In the decade that Marshall oversaw the paper, he learned “making sure the paper could prosper financially” was just as important as the editorial side.
“I [also] quickly learnt that readers had to feel confident in what they were reading,” said Marshall, adding this was one of the main foundations of the business.
“The well-publicised shift to digital, the pressure on print, I suppose, and the speed at which news moves now means you’ve got to have that adaptability.”
He added “the fundamentals never changed”: “You always had to be accurate, fair, and it was really important to tell a good story well.”
Paper-first model
The title has been profitable since launch and gets “really good” advertising revenue – including from the local authority.
Advertising revenue accounts for 50% of The Hawick Paper’s income, and the other half comes mostly from the print and digital sales of the paper at £1.20 per issue. When the title launched in 2016 it cost 90p, meaning it has risen in price in line with the average annual inflation rate across the decade of 3.31%.
Marshall said he is currently “really pleased” with the “rock solid” circulation, adding the paper has bucked prevailing industry trends with its “paper first” model.
“Most titles now [are] digital first. We were always aware there’s a pressure on print, but we were always confident that our readers… wanted… our take on things.”
He added the biggest draw for buyers is the “loyalty of readers” – “they get their paper, have a cup of tea, a slice of cake. It’s just part of their Friday morning ritual.”
He added: “The future will depend on adaptability with publishers like myself continuing to find sustainable business models. But the priority has got to be on incredible community-focused reporting.
“To me, there’ll always be a place for strong local titles, but they must evolve, but still hold on to the core principles that make them valuable.”
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