Arts critics expected to be posted absent at Sunday Herald

IF there are some notable absentees from the next edition of the Sunday Herald, they may not necessarily be as a result of a planned walk-out of NUJ members, beginning tomorrow and continuing on Saturday.

The Sunday Herald is to have a new look this weekend, and it is expected to involve a reduction of critic-led reviews.

As it is, the new look will see the current business supplement folded into the paper’s main section and the arts and TV supplement, Seven Days, incorporated into a newly-designed magazine.

It is understood the only critic-led reviews the paper will continue to carry will be of film and CDs.

Last weekend, when teeing up its new look, the Sunday Herald promised the ‘best arts coverage in Scotland’, and, certainly, dispensing with individual critics – most, if not all, freelancers – does not necessarily mean abandoning the subject areas.

It could be just a formatting issue, where parts of what will now be the new-look magazine will not be cordoned off for specific reviews – such as visual arts or theatre.