''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact 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 until August 2004. Its parent company, JPIMedia, also publishes the '' Edinburgh Evening News''. It had an audited print circulation of 16,349 for July to December 2018. 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 launched in 1817 as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie and 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. The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firmness and independence". 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. In 1860, The Scotsman obtained a purpose built office on Cockburn Street in

designed in the Scots baronial style by the architects Peddie & Kinnear. 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 (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 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 The Society for News Design (SND), formerly known as the Society of Newspaper Design, is an international organization for professionals working in the news sector of the media industry, specifically those involved with graphic design, illustration ...

(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, 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. 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. 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, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

. 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.

Editors

:1817: William Ritchie :1817:

:1818: John Ramsay McCulloch :1843: John Hill Burton (acting) :1846: Alexander Russel :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 :1972: Eric MacKay :1985: Chris Baur :1988: Magnus Linklater :1994: Andrew Jaspan :1995: James Seaton :1997: Martin Clarke :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 :2004: John McGurk :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

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