Reach is closing its website dedicated to Scottish football nine months after launching it despite bosses being “extremely pleased” with traffic.
Football Scotland’s content will subsumed into the Daily Record website to supplement the daily title’s own “huge daily football audience” and to “grow this successful project further”, a Reach spokesperson said.
Both websites are already based in the same Glasgow office.
The standalone sports website, which launched with four new editorial hires in January this year, is due to close on 27 September.
Of the five journalists now on the Football Scotland team, only four will move over to the Daily Record. Two staff members are in consultation for redundancy as a result of the axed role. Reach said they would be “made aware of any other suitable vacancies across the group”.
Reach Scotland editor-in-chief David Dick said: “The team at Football Scotland has done a terrific job at creating a distinctive new voice in Scottish football which has attracted a large and loyal audience really quickly.
“We have been extremely pleased with the traffic it has generated and that continues to grow every month.
“We are confident that by moving this style of content to our flagship website dailyrecord.co.uk, which already has a huge daily football audience, even more people will be able to enjoy it and it will continue to excel.
“Constant experimentation is crucial for our journalism to thrive, and we believe we can grow this successful project further under the banner of the Daily Record, Scotland’s newspaper of the year and biggest online news title.”
Football Scotland was initially tasked with producing more statistics-based content and long reads compared to its sister titles, such as the Record.
Dick said at its launch it would have a “different tone and style that adds something new to what is already being offered across the Scottish media”.
Former Glasgow Live editor Gregor Kyle, who joined Football Scotland as editor, left two months after overseeing the launch. Jonathan McFarlane subsequently took the helm, moving from the Record’s video desk.
Thesite is manned seven days a week, between 7am and 10pm on weekdays and from 8am until 9pm at weekends.
The closure comes after subscription sports news service The Athletic launched in the UK last month, with one dedicated Rangers and Scottish football writer among its 57-strong staff.
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