| The Scotsman | |
| Type: | Daily newspaper |
| Format: | Compact |
| Foundation: | 1817 |
| Owners: | Johnston Press |
| Political: | Centre-right, Unionist |
| Price: | GBP 0.70 Monday-Friday & GBP 0.85 Saturday |
| Headquarters: | 108 Holyrood Rd, Edinburgh |
| Editor: | Mike Gilson[1] |
| Website: | http://www.scotsman.com/ |
The Scotsman is a Scottish national newspaper, published in Edinburgh. It has an audited circulation of 53,513.[2] This represents a significant drop from an approximately 100,000 circulation in the 1980s.[3]
Since 16 August 2004, it has been printed in compact format. Its sister Sunday publication, which remains broadsheet, is titled Scotland on Sunday. The Scotsman Publications Ltd also produces the Edinburgh Evening News and the Herald & Post series of free newspapers in Edinburgh, Fife, and West Lothian.
The Scotsman was launched[4] in 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. The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firmness and independence". After the abolition of newspaper stamp tax in Scotland in 1850, The Scotsman was relaunched as a daily newspaper priced at 1d and a circulation of 6000 copies.
In 1953 the newspaper was bought by Canadian millionaire Roy Thomson who was in the process of building an enormous media empire. The paper was in 1995 bought by billionaires David and Frederick Barclay for £85 million. They moved the newspaper from its traditional Edinburgh office on North Bridge, which is now an upmarket hotel, to state-of-the-art offices on Holyrood Road designed by Edinburgh architects CDA, near where the Scottish Parliament Building was subsequently built.
In December 2005, The Scotsman was acquired, in a £160 million deal, by its current owners Johnston Press a company founded in Scotland and now one of the top three largest local newspaper publishers in the UK as well as a major force on the internet.
The last decade or so has seen the paper replaced by The Herald as the pre-eminent Scottish quality newspaper in terms of readership.
The Scotsman was a staunch supporter of Scottish devolution, though is considered Unionist and critical of the Scottish National Party who lead the devolved Scottish Government. It strongly opposed the decision to create the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
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
1905: John Pettigrew Croal
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
Source: The Scotsman Digital Archive
Since 1998, the Scotsman has had an internet portal that features the latest news, sports, business, property, motors and sport in different sections of the site. It has had live webcams and panoramas around Scotland. It also has sections for other Scotsman Publications including Scotland on Sunday and the Evening News.