Journalists at STV will strike on a key day for Scottish elections coverage next month in response to a salary freeze.
The strike on Friday 8 May has been timed to coincide with coverage of the Holyrood vote count. It will be the second by STV News journalists this year.
STV said a temporary salary freeze is one of several measures taken “to respond to the market conditions facing the media sector” and “apply fiscal restraint and minimise increases to the cost base of the business”.
STV has not increased base salaries since January 2025, when staff received a 3% pay rise and the final payment under a discretionary profit-sharing plan.
In a letter to unions, including National Union of Journalists (NUJ), the broadcaster said the freeze is the “only option at this stage as we prioritise returning business to profitability”.
The Scottish broadcaster’s revenue in the year to 31 December 2025 was down by 6% to £176.9m.
It blamed the drop on a weak economy and a pressured advertising market, with ad revenue down by 10% to £89.3m.
STV swung from a statutory pre-tax profit of £10.4m into a loss of £5.9m, while adjusted pre-tax profit dropped 61% to £6.7m. Adjusted operating profit was down 44% to £11.6m, and statutory operating profit was down 71% to £3.8m.
The adjusted results include factors like amortisation and impairment of intangible assets like IP (£2.9m) and total restructuring costs of £4m.
A £5m cost saving programme began in March 2024 and was extended to £8m in September 2025 “in response to continued challenging advertising and content commissioning markets”.
Some £1.7m, mainly redundancy costs, was spent on this restructuring in the 2025 financial year and overall spend on pay increased by 16% as a result of one-off redundancy payments.
STV said around 60 roles across the business were cut in the second half of 2025 with about £3m of incremental savings expected to be made as a result in 2026. Some 28 newsroom roles were affected, which STV said was mostly through voluntary redundancy or redeployment.
Around 80 journalists went on strike in January over the redundancies and a plan to merge the STV Central and STV North 6pm news programmes with a single bulletin covering both licence areas. Ofcom’s final decision on the change has been delayed until after the Scottish elections.
Nick McGowan-Lowe, NUJ Scotland organiser, said: “It’s regrettable and frustrating that after extensive talks, management are refusing to put forward any kind of fair compensation offer to the overworked and underpaid staff in the newsroom.
“It is one thing to write warm words in the annual report recognising that the success of the newsroom is built on the backs of its staff, but CEO Rufus Radcliffe needs to back that up with real actions.”
Radcliffe said the company is “proud that STV News at Six remains the most-watched news programme in Scotland” in the financial report, adding the team “has delivered significant growth in video views across our digital news platforms”.
An STV spokesperson said: “We recognise a temporary salary freeze is challenging for colleagues, but we’ve had to take a range of measures to respond to the market conditions facing the media sector.
“Returning the business to a strong financial footing is our priority and will protect the long term interests of our colleagues.
“We are disappointed that the planned day of action would impact our audiences and we remain committed to continuing the dialogue with the joint unions.”
STV said it was committing to revenue growth through the launch of STV Radio in 2025, new advertising capabilities, and an increase in digital viewing.
STV has a target to grow digital revenue from £22.5m in 2025 to £30m in 2026, and Studios revenue from £82m to between £120m and £140m, but its results show it is not on track to meet either of these targets.
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