1. 2009 Conference To See Ourselves … Mediating Scotland 30/05/09 The Scottish Press David Hutchison

2. Newspapers and magazines. Four-city pattern. Dailies, evenings, Sundays, weeklies. Very competitive environment – challenges from other media and the south.

3. EARLY HISTORY Acta Diurna and merchants’ letters. Johannes Gutenberg – Bible of 1455. Don’t forget the Chinese! Printing comes to Scotland in 1508.

4. EARLY NEWSPAPERS Mercurius Caledonius 1661 Edinburgh Evening Courant 1718- 1871 Aberdeen Press and Journal 1748 – Glasgow Advertiser/Herald – 1783 – Dundee Courier 1816 – The Scotsman 1817 –

5. NATURE OF EARLY PAPERS Small circulations and relatively high prices. Elite audiences. Importance of advertising revenue. Hard news and late news. Legal restrictions. ‘Battle of the unstamped’.

6. TECHNOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE Printing presses and wood pulp. Telegraph, telephone and illustrations. End of ‘taxes on knowledge’. Extension of franchise. Expansion of education. Railways and the London press.

7. EARLY 20 TH CENTURY PRESS Market segmentation. Finance. Huge mass-market circulations. Substantial Scottish press but beginnings of editionising. Technological innovation slows.

8. THE MASS MARKET PRESS Sundays get in first e.g. News of the World 1843 Daily Record 1895 Daily Mail 1896 Daily Express 1900 Sunday Post 1914 Sunday Mail 1919

9. 20 TH CENTURY CHALLENGES Arrival of cinema – handled. Arrival of radio – handled. Arrival of television – the most serious challenge yet. ILR develops. Internet develops. Metro appears.

10. IMPACT ON PRESS Evenings decline sharply. But situation buoyant in terms of titles. New titles appear. But in UK and much of West circulations are in decline. Revenue raising on websites not easy. Changing ownership patterns. Future uncertain

11. CURRENT SCOTTISH SITUATION General trends reflected. Growth of editionised English titles. Loss of market shares and revenues. Is situation sustainable? What would we lose?

12. THE MAGAZINE SECTOR Proximity of England ( cf Canada and the US). Niche markets – ethnic, sporting, trade etc. Early 19 th Century contrast. D C Thomson’s success.

13. POLITICS AND THE SCOTTISH PRESS A forum for discussion and debate. Legal distinctiveness. Partisanship. Reporting, campaigning and propaganda. Broadcasting is different. The Internet and trust.

14. CHANGING NATURE OF SCOTTISH POLITCS Decline of Conservatives. Challenge to Labour hegemony. Rise of SNP. Devolution and its consequences. Holyrood/press relationship -Section 28 reform -criticism of quality of MSPs -expenses exposes -Sheridan libel trial. The SNP and the press

15. COMPARISON EXERCISE All of the day’s papers. Look at news agendas of - indigenous titles - editionised titles - non-editionised titles. Consider - reporting of Scotland and the UK -Sport -reporting of the world and the sources of such news

16. What is being reported? What is not being reported? What picture of the world beyond Scotland and the UK is being offered? Can we draw any conclusions about the relationship between editorial stances, op-ed pieces and reporting?

17. David Hutchison is Visiting Professor in Media Policy at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has been a member of the BBC’s General Advisory Council and of the Scottish Film Council, for which he chaired its Media Education committee. He is currently a board member of Regional Screen Scotland. He is the author of Media Policy (1999, Blackwell) and co-edited The Media in Scotland (2008, Edinburgh University Press).