Pub Month: Sunday Mail owners Media Scotland backs Scotland’s Pubs

Media Scotland, our largest newspaper group, and the company behind the Daily Record, Sunday Mail, Glaswegian and regional titles including the Kilmarnock Standard, Paisley Daily Express, Irvine Herald, East Kilbride News and more, is backing ‘Pub Month’ a brand new initiative which aims to get customers back into Scotland’s pubs.
Media Scotland’s “Pub Month” aims to increase footfall in pubs, encourage more publicans to promote new or existing events to attract further trade, and to spread awareness of community pubs throughout the media.
The campaign with a four page pull out in the Sunday Mail and a double page spread in each of the regional titles – 18 in total.
Says Editor in Chief Allan Rennie, “We’re delighted to be supporting Pub Month. Pubs are a vital part of our local communities across Scotland – without them we would be a poorer place. Pubs ARE our local heroes.”
The initiative links into the DRAM Scottish Licensed Trade Awards, and the Sunday Mail Pub of the year award. Readers across Scotland will be invited to nominate their local pubs to their local title editor and two pubs will go forward as finalists to the Sunday Mail Pub of the year competition.
DRAM Editor, Susan Young, comments, “This initiative will rely on the support of the trade and of drinks companies. We’ve been calling out for a positive message about Scotland’s pubs and this is it. And if this works, and I am sure it will, there is no reason why we couldn’t make this an annual event. It gives licensees an opportunity to put on events and shout about them, and it allows all sorts PR opportunities too.”
Frank Murphy of The Pot Still in Glasgow said, “Pub Month is a fantastic idea. Anything that gets more people re-acquainted with their local gets my vote, but, more importantly, is long overdue. I can have a gantry full of whisky and pumps full of beer, but what is the point without customers? This is part of the trade fight back after years of being battered by negative press for far too long. The parliamentary commission on Beer and Brewing is fantastic, but it’s not enough, as we also need a specifically trade focused initiative and Pub Month is exactly that.”
While Dave Pearce of the Robert Burns Lounge, Perth comments, “I welcome Pub Month. We need to re-ignite people’s interest in what their locals have to offer.”
Media Scotland’s websites and newspapers, including the Record’s other sister title The Glaswegian, are read by two out of three Scots.
The newspapers backing Pub Month are: Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail,Ayrshire Post, Kilmarnock Standard, Irvine Herald, Hamilton Advertiser, East Kilbride News, Rutherglen Reformer, Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser, Wishaw Press, West Lothian Courier, Paisley Daily Express, Lennox Herald, Perthshire Advertiser, The Galloway News, Glaswegian, Dumfries & Galloway Standard, Stirling Observer, Strathearn Herald, Blairgowrie Advertiser.