More signs of trouble at Johnston Press, owners of The Buteman

Johnston Press, owner of The Buteman and currently dealing with straightened financial circumstances by organising an asset sale of some of its Irish titles, has another disruption on its hands. It has just seen Mike Gibson, editor of its Scottish flagship title, The Scotsman, resign with immedate effect. It is understood that he has already gone back to Portsmouth where his family still stay.

He follows Les Snowden, Editor of another of the Group’s Scottish titles, Scotland on Sunday, who is moving to become Sports Editor at the Daily Mail.

Johnston Press bought The Scotsman from the Barclay Brothers wo years ago, paying £161million for it. In the company’s current circumstances it has been rumoured that it might not keep The Scotsman but its plans now seem to be focused on cost-cutting.

Mr Gibson has been its editor since 2006. His resignation arrives in the context of a a restructuring of the editorial team and processes. This may involve estabishing a single team to design and sub-edit all of the Johnston Press’s Edinburgh-based titles – which include the Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday. The Scottish division of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said that these plans will involve no more than a few redundancies, all of which will be voluntary.

Mr Gibson seems to have been unhappy with the current restructuring plans, which include the possible appointment of a single Editor-in-Chief. The inside track for this post is thought to be held by John McLellan, who edits the Edinburgh Evening News. The departure of the editors of the two other major Edinburgh-based titles leaves that situation clear.

John McLellan has now been appointed to edit The Scotsman, the paper’s 10th editor in 15 years. An announcement is expected on Tuesday about the future of the three titles and this is expected to to focus on a merged editorial team to produce them.