THE SCOTSMAN

'''The Scotsman''' is a regional newspaper, published in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It has an audited circulation of 63,974 and a readership of 217,000, mainly in eastern Scotland.
Since August 16, 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.

Contents

History

View on the Scottish constitutional question

See also

External links

History

''The Scotsman'' was launched [2] 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".(However recently, after the Scottish Parliament elections, The Scotsman and its sister paper, The Evening News, have had many accusations of being biased in favour of the outgoing Scottish Labour Party, printing consistent negative views of the Incoming Parliament.) 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, 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.

View on the Scottish constitutional question

''The Scotsman'' was a staunch supporter of Scottish devolution though has been critical of devolution since and any bids for Scottish Independence. It presented itself as strongly opposed to the decision to abolish the Scottish Regiments. It is aligned to the Scottish Labour Party at the present time, and does tend to take a highly Unionist stance when it can.

See also

★ List of newspapers in Scotland

★ Scottish Daily News

External links

★ ''The Scotsman'' website

★ History of ''The Scotsman''