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The Scotsman

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The Scotsman
The Scotsman cover (11 May 2011)
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatCompact
Owner(s)National World
EditorAlan Young[1]
Founded1817
Political alignmentNone[2]
HeadquartersEdinburgh, Scotland, UK
Circulation7,710 (as of 2023)[3]
Sister newspapersEdinburgh Evening News
Scotland on Sunday
ISSN0307-5850
OCLC number614655655
Websitewww.scotsman.com

The Scotsman is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its parent company, National World, also publishes the Edinburgh Evening News. It had an audited print circulation of 8,762 for July to December 2022.[4] Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017.[5] The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017.

History

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Scotsman office 1860 by Peddie and Kinnear
Scotsman buildings as seen from Market Street
Apex of the Scotsman offices of 1899
Barclay House, former home of The Scotsman's offices in Edinburgh

The Scotsman was conceived in 1816[6] and first launched[7] on 25 January 1817 as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie and customs official Charles Maclaren in response to the "unblushing subservience" of competing newspapers to the Edinburgh establishment. These two plus John Ramsay McCulloch were co-founders of the venture.[8]

The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firmness and independence". The price was originally 6d plus 4d tax.[9] After the abolition of newspaper stamp tax in Scotland in 1855, The Scotsman was relaunched as a daily newspaper priced at 1d and a circulation of 6,000 copies.

The fledgling paper was originally based at 257 High Street on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.[10] Until 1860 the Scotsman shared a building with the Caledonian Mercury newspaper.[11]

In 1860, The Scotsman obtained its own purpose built office on Cockburn Street in Edinburgh designed in the Scots baronial style by the architects Peddie & Kinnear.[12] This backed onto their original offices on the Royal Mile. The building bears the initials "JR" for John Ritchie, the founder of the company. On 19 December 1904,[13] they moved to much larger new offices at the top of Cockburn Street, facing onto North Bridge, designed by Dunn & Findlay (Findlay being the son of the then owner). This huge building had taken three years to build and also had connected printworks on Market Street (in 2024 the City Art Centre). The printworks connected below road level direct to Waverley station in an efficient production line.

In 1953 the newspaper was bought by Canadian millionaire Roy Thomson who was in the process of building a large media group. The paper was bought in 1995 by David and Frederick Barclay for £85 million. They moved the newspaper from its Edinburgh office on North Bridge, which is now an upmarket hotel, to modern offices in Holyrood Road designed by Edinburgh architects CDA, near the subsequent location of the Scottish Parliament Building.

The daily was awarded by the Society for News Design (SND) the World's Best Designed Newspaper for 1994.[14]

In December 2005, The Scotsman along with its sister titles owned by The Scotsman Publications Ltd was acquired, in a £160 million deal, by Johnston Press, a company founded in Scotland and at the time one of the top three largest local newspaper publishers in the UK. Ian Stewart has been the editor since June 2012, after a reshuffle of senior management in April 2012 during which John McLellan who was the paper's editor-in-chief was dismissed. Ian Stewart was previously editor of Edinburgh Evening News and remains as the editor of Scotland on Sunday.

In 2012, The Scotsman was named Newspaper of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.[15]

In 2006 the Barclay Brothers sold Barclay House to Irish property magnate Lochlann Quinn, and in 2013 Scottish video games maker Rockstar North, of Grand Theft Auto fame, signed the lease, causing Johnston Press group to move out in June 2014.[16][17] Johnston Press have downsized to refurbished premises at Orchard Brae House in Queensferry Road, Edinburgh, a move which was quoted as saving the group £1million per annum in rent.[18]

The newspaper backed a 'No' vote in the referendum on Scottish independence.[19]

In November 2018, Johnston Press filed for administration. Shortly after filing for administration, the company was bought out by JPIMedia, a company which was bought by former Daily Mirror exec David Montgomery's new National World group in 2020.[20][21]

In July 2023 an extra 52 years were added to the archive alongside the previous archives (1951–2002).

Editors

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1817: William Ritchie
1817: Charles Maclaren
1818: John Ramsay McCulloch
1843: John Hill Burton (acting)
1846: Alexander Russel
1876: Robert Wallace
1880: Charles Alfred Cooper[22]
1905: John Pettigrew Croal[23]
1924: George A. Waters
1944: James Murray Watson
1955: John Buchanan (acting)
1956: Alastair Dunnett
1972: Eric MacKay
1985: Chris Baur
1988: Magnus Linklater
1994: Andrew Jaspan
1995: James Seaton
1997: Martin Clarke
1998: Alan Ruddock
2000: Tim Luckhurst
2000: Rebecca Hardy
2001: Iain Martin
2004: John McGurk
2006: Mike Gilson[24]
2009: John McLellan
2012: Ian Stewart
2017: Frank O'Donnell
2020: Euan McGrory
2021: Neil McIntosh[25]
2024: Alan Young

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Deputy Editor Steps Up to Top Job at Cuts-Hit Title". Hold The Front Page. 22 August 2024. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Readers Charter – JPIMedia Ltd".
  3. ^ "The Scotsman". Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK). 26 February 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
  4. ^ "The Scotsman | July to December 2022" (PDF). ABC. 27 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Online Property: Activity Certificate: July to December 2016. The Scotsman.com" (PDF). Audit Bureau of Circulations. 23 February 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  6. ^ Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.283
  7. ^ "The Scotsman Archive: Search". The Scotsman Digital Archive. UK. 25 January 1817. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  8. ^ Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.283
  9. ^ Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2 p.283
  10. ^ "(204) – Towns > Edinburgh > 1805–1834 – Post Office annual directory > 1832–1833 – Scottish Directories – National Library of Scotland". digital.nls.uk. Archived from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  11. ^ Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol.2, p. 283
  12. ^ Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Peddie & Kinnear
  13. ^ Archive, The Scotsman Digital. "About – Scotsman Digital Archive". archive.scotsman.com. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  14. ^ "World's Best-Designed winners (2006)". Society for News Design. 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  15. ^ "John McLellan collects newspaper of the year award". Press Gazette. UK. 20 April 2012. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  16. ^ Lambourne, Helen. "Regional daily 'to seek new headquarters'". Hold the Front Page. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  17. ^ "Nostalgia: Evening News on the move". Edinburgh Evening News. 21 June 2014.
  18. ^ Greenslade, Roy (28 April 2014). "Johnston Press saves £1m a year with office move for The Scotsman". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  19. ^ "Scotland's decision – The Scotsman's Verdict". The Scotsman. 10 September 2014. Archived from the original on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  20. ^ "Johnston Press: News Letter owner bought over by new company". BBC News. 17 November 2018. Archived from the original on 19 April 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  21. ^ "Owner of Scotsman and Yorkshire Post newspapers bought for £10m". The Guardian. 31 December 2020. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  22. ^ "Cooper, Charles Alfred". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 380. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  23. ^ "Croal, J. P." Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 413. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  24. ^ Vass, Steven (10 September 2006). "Scotsman's choice of editor raises questions over future direction PRESS: APPOINTMENT Industry stunned as internal Portsmouth newspaper boss Mike Gilson wins top job". The Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  25. ^ "The Scotsman Digital Archive".

Further reading

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  • Merrill, John C.; Harold A. Fisher (1980). The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers. pp. 273–79.
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