SO, do you think The Herald has gone overboard on the Platinum Jubilee or do you think we’ve got the coverage about right?
We imagine the answer to that one will depend on your views on the monarchy as an institution, possibly your age – older folk tend to be more supportive – and whether you back independence – Yes voters being more sympathetic to a republic despite SNP policy being to retain the Queen and her successors in any future independent state.
A poll last month, by the British Future thinktank, found that only 45% in Scotland said they wanted to retain the monarchy, while Leave voters are more likely to back the monarchy than Remainers.
So how do we balance all that and decide how much to do on any major occasion?
In the case of the jubilee – and the format is much the same for any significant news event – the Editor takes soundings from his staff.
The editors of each department, such as news, pictures, opinion, business, features and online, will outline their plans.
For instance, scheduling features for the Herald Magazine, such as last week’s piece on how Scotland has changed economically, politically and culturally since the Coronation, will be done weeks, sometimes months, in advance.
The news editors will have events in the forward planning diary, too, with a rough chronology of how these events might unfold.
We knew the dates well in advance for the main events to mark the jubilee, such as the St Paul’s Cathedral service.
In this case, it included my traditional appeal to make sure we didn’t allow any agency copy to slip through referring to Queen Elizabeth II – a historical bugbear that upsets many Herald readers.
So how much space does the jubilee warrant? You’ll probably not be surprised that opinions on the paper were, like the rest of Scottish society, split.
Some staff would have been happy to give it no more than a picture story on page 11 – others thought we should devote Page 1 to Page 28 to the celebrations.
I exaggerate slightly, but only slightly.
As the home of intelligent debate, this week we have carried columns from Alison "I’m a Republican, Get Me Out of Here" Rowat and her monarchist counterparts Mark Smith and Kara Kennedy, while Neil Mackay has decried Britain’s – or more accurately – England’s backwards-looking obsession with the past.
In news, we have covered all the big talking points – the pomp and ceremony from London and across the UK, including the lighting of the beacons in Scotland – but also concerns about the lack of official events in Glasgow.
We will never be found hiding in the hedges outside Balmoral and we will always remember the royals are real people, not soap opera characters, but no matter your views the jubilee is a huge news event and one that deserved to be covered in depth.
What the royal family does, matters. Still.
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