08/09/2008

Clearly, it's the 'Andy Murray Effect', the Scots tennis star last night making it to the final of the US Open - his first Grand Slam final. And generous-spirited that Spike is this morning, it sees that the Scottish Daily Mail has done particularly in its coverage of the player's achievements.

By Spike's reckoning, the paper is the only Scottish title to get Murray's win last night against Rafael Nadal, in the semi-final, into all its editions. Not bad, given the match finished around 11pm. The Mail had a page one picture, a page three news story and three pages of sport for the first edition. They must have had little more than 20 minutes to get it done and dusted.

And while in the mood, a belated 'well done' to The Scotsman, for its coverage, on Thursday, of First Minister, Alex Salmond's plans to introduce a local income tax - announced the previous day. No doubt because of a huge amount of preparation, it gathered an astonishing 25 (albeit all anti-) comments from the great and the good of Scottish civic and business life, including CBI Scotland, the Scottish Federation of Small Businesses, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives. An impressive feat.

Comment: I haven't spoken to the printers yet but, as far as I know (and admittedly, I'm usually wrong) Metro managed to get Andy Murray's win in for all editions. It was a back page and inside report and we did it in 20 minutes, with two staff. Craig.


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