''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish

compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...

newspaper and daily news website headquartered in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

until August 2004. Its parent company,

National World National World is a British multimedia company. The company was founded as JPIMedia Publishing Ltd in November 2018 following the acquisition of Johnston Press assets by its creditors. JPIMedia was purchased by National World PLC for £10.2 mill ...

, also publishes the ''

Edinburgh Evening News The ''Edinburgh Evening News'' is a daily newspaper and website based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded by John Wilson (1844–1909) and first published in 1873. It is printed daily, except on Sundays. It is owned by JPIMedia, which also ...

''. It had an audited print circulation of 8,762 for July to December 2022. Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017. The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017.

History

Scotsman Office 1860 by Peddie and Kinnear

''The Scotsman'' was conceived in 1816 and first launched on 25 January 1817 as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie and

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

official

Charles Maclaren Charles Maclaren (7 October 1782 – 10 September 1866) was a Scottish journalist and geologist. He co-founded ''The Scotsman'' newspaper, was its editor for 27 years, and edited the 6th Edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and the firs ...

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. The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firmness and independence". The price was originally 6d plus 4d tax. After the abolition of newspaper

stamp tax Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). A physical revenu ...

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 The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...

. Until 1860 the Scotsman was co-housed with the Caledonian Mercury newspaper. In 1860, The Scotsman obtained a purpose built office on

Cockburn Street Cockburn Street is a picturesque street in Edinburgh's Old Town, created as a serpentine link from the High Street to Waverley Station in 1856. It is named after the then recently-deceased Scottish lawyer, judge and literary figure Henry, Lor ...

designed in the Scots baronial style by the architects

Peddie & Kinnear Peddie may refer to: Surname: *Dr Alexander Peddie, Scottish physician * Bruce Peddie, American college baseball coach *Jack Peddie (1876–1928), Scottish football player who played for various clubs in both England and Scotland *James Peddie, Bar ...

. 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, they moved to huge new offices at the top of the street, facing onto North Bridge, designed by

Dunn & Findlay Dunn & Findlay were a firm of Scottish architects operating in the late 19th century and responsible for a number of important commercial buildings including the ''Scotsman'' buildings which form part of the Edinburgh Old Town skyline. Each wa ...

(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 (now the City Art Centre). The printworks connected below road level direct to

Waverley station Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; gd, Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the north ...

in a highly 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. In December 2005, ''The Scotsman'' along with its sister titles owned by The Scotsman Publications Ltd was acquired, in a £160million deal, by

Johnston Press Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter'' ...

, 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 ''

'' and remains as the editor of ''

Scotland on Sunday ''Scotland on Sunday'' is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by JPIMedia and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate ''The Scotsman''. It was originally printed in broadsheet format but in 2013 ...

''. In 2012, ''The Scotsman'' was named Newspaper of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. In 2006 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. 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. The newspaper backed a 'No' vote in the

referendum on Scottish independence A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side w ...

. In November 2018, Johnston Press filed for

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

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

Editors

:1817: William Ritchie :1817:

:1818: John Ramsay McCulloch :1843:

John Hill Burton John Hill Burton FRSE (22 August 1809 – 10 August 1881) was a Scottish advocate, historian and economist. The author of ''Life and Correspondence of David Hume'', he was secretary of the Scottish Prison Board (1854–77), and Historiograph ...

(acting) :1846:

Alexander Russel Alexander Russel (or sometimes Russell) FRSE (1814–1876) was a Scottish newspaper editor, who spent nearly 30 years as the editor of ''The Scotsman''. Early life Russel was born on 10 December 1814 in Edinburgh; his father, a solicitor an ...

:1876: Robert Wallace :1880:

Charles Alfred Cooper Charles Alfred Cooper FRSE LLD (16 September 1829 – 14 April 1916) was an English newspaper editor and author. In 1894 he co-founded the Walter Scott Club. Life He was born in Hull on 16 September 1829, the son of Charles Cooper, an archite ...

:1905:

John Pettigrew Croal John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

:1924:

George A. Waters George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

:1944:

James Murray Watson James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

:1955: John Buchanan (acting) :1956:

Alastair Dunnett Sir Alastair MacTavish Dunnett (26 December 1908 – 2 September 1998) was a Scottish journalist and newspaper editor. He edited '' The Daily Record'' newspaper for nine years and ''The Scotsman'' newspaper from 1956 to 1972. In 1975 he ...

:1972: Eric MacKay :1985:

Chris Baur Christopher Frank Baur (born 28 May 1942) is Scottish broadcast journalist. Between 1985 and 1988, he was the editor of ''The Scotsman'' newspaper. Education Baur was educated at Dalhousie School, Dalhousie Preparatory School and Strathallan Sch ...

:1988: Magnus Linklater :1994: Andrew Jaspan :1995: James Seaton :1997:

Martin Clarke Martin "Marty" Clarke ( ga, Máirtín Ó Cléirigh; born 13 November 1987) is a Gaelic and former Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2007 to 2009 and again from ...

:1998:

Alan Ruddock Alan Ruddock (10 January 1944 – 2 April 2012) was an Irish Martial Arts pioneer, teacher and writer. He introduced both Aikido & Karate to Ireland and was the founder of the ''Aiki no Michi'' and its interpretation of Aikido. Ruddock was one o ...

:2000: Tim Luckhurst :2000: Rebecca Hardy :2001:

Iain Martin Iain James Martin (born 2 October 1971) is a Scottish political commentator, author and public speaker. He writes a weekly column for ''The Times'' and is co-founder, editor and publisher of ''Reaction'' - a news site providing analysis and opi ...

:2004:

John McGurk John McGurk (17 September 1874 – 22 November 1944) was a British coal miner and trade unionist. Born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, McGurk grew up in Pendlebury, Lancashire, and began working at a coal mine aged 12. He became active ...

:2006:

Mike Gilson Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documenta ...

:2009: John McLellan :2012: Ian Stewart :2017: Frank O'Donnell :2020: Euan McGrory :2021: Neil McIntosh :2024: Alan Young

References

External links

*
''The Scotsman'' Digital Archive 1817–1950

Johnston Press

Comprehensive Design Architects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scotsman, The 1817 establishments in Scotland 19th century in Scotland Mass media in Edinburgh Newspapers published in Scotland Newspapers with Scottish Gaelic content Publications established in 1817 Scottish brands Newspapers published by Johnston Press British news websites

History

Editors

See also

References

Further reading

External links