MINISTERS were under pressure last night to justify their decision to award a £230,000 grant to an online music magazine.
Clash, based in Dundee, is to be given the money to help create 18 jobs.
The money is coming from the Scottish Government's regional selective assistance programme designed to create jobs and grow businesses.
But the award has caused surprise
among senior figures from other music publications and among some politicians at the Scottish Parliament.
Ted Brocklebank, for the Tories, questioned whether the Scottish Government was right to target one company in what is a very competitive market.
He said: "The issue here is what this says about competition in a situation where all publishers are having to operate on very tight budgets."
And he added: "At a time when it could be said that a number of publishers are under severe strain, it is perhaps not immediately obvious that Clash has a better claim to this money than anyone else."
Clash sells about 30,000 copies a month (10,000 of those in Scotland) and its website has about 50,000 unique users a month, but this is some way short of the market leaders.
John O'Rourke, Clash Music Group managing director, said the guidelines for the grant were very strict and they had to produce a detailed business plan in order to get the money. Also, in Clash's case, the jobs had to be created in Dundee and the company had to grow over time to get each tranche of the money.
As for the competition not getting similar grants, Mr O'Rourke said: "We applied and the others didn't."
He added: "If you look at the type of publisher we are, we have more of an international focus and that is where we want to be. We have got to justify this money at every stage."
A spokeswoman for Scottish Enterprise, which has worked with Clash for several years, giving advice to help grow the business, stressed that Clash was not "singled out" for help.
She said: "It's not about the particular industry they are in. We work with them because they are a creative online industry and they are creating jobs. The jobs have to be created in Dundee. There are very strict criteria about that."
A Scottish Government spokesman also defended the award. He said: "
This growing Scottish company could have moved its headquarters to London – but the RSA award means it will establish its headquarters in Dundee and help create 18 new jobs."
The full article contains 430 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
