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 2016after taking voluntary redundancy as editor from the Hawick News, which wasclosed 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.
The Hawick Paper covers news such asa new Center Parcs holiday village in the Scottish bordersand the long-awaitedlaunch of a McDonald’s branchin 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.”
Source: Press Gazette
