Full details of a new daily, pro-independence newspaper, The National, were officially released today.
Aimed at the 1.6m Scots who voted to leave the Union in September, the new title will go on sale on Monday morning.
The National, part of the Newsquest-owned Herald & Times Group which also publishes heraldscotland.com, was unveiled by its new editor Richard Walker this afternoon to a 12,000 capacity crowd of SNP supporters at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, where new First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was addressing party members.
Walker also heads up the Sunday Herald, the only Scottish title to actively support independence in the referendum. It saw print sales spike to around 50,000 copies the Sunday after the result, an 111% year-on-year increase. The paper's circulation is currently running about 40% higher year-on-year.
Walker said: "We lost the referendum but the political momentum behind independence is growing by the day, evidenced by the doubling of membership of the SNP, and the ongoing debate about extra powers for the Scottish Parliament."
Herald & Times Group managing director Tim Blott said: "It is the first time in many years that a new daily newspaper has been launched in Scotland. The National is an exciting opportunity to meet the needs of a very politically-engaged section of the Scottish population.
"We recognise that launching a newspaper in 2014 is to some extent counter-intuitive but we consistently argue for the power of great journalism and informed opinion. We will trial the new title in its proposed format for a week and if, as anticipated, it takes off, then it will become a new and dynamic fixture in Scottish publishing."
The new 50p National can be purchased Monday to Friday from most newsagents and supermarkets. It is also available as an electronic edition for online readers. Subscribe using this link
An accompanying website, www.TheNational.scot, is being prepared. In the meantime the website features a holding page which includes information about the title and an opportunity for readers to give feedback.
Content from the print edition of the Sunday Herald will continue to feature on heraldscotland.com.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article