Sales of Scotland’s first pro-independence daily paper falls to 15,000 – a quarter that of launch edition – but publishing group remains committed to investing in the title

Sales of the National have fallen below 20,000 as the novelty of Scotland’s first pro-independence daily newspaper appears to be on the wane.

The title, whose masthead banner runs “The newspaper that supports an independent Scotland”, launched on Monday 24 November to huge interest, selling out its initial 60,000 print run.

But daily sales of the 50p print edition are understood to have dropped to about 15,000, with another 2,500 to 3,000 digital subscribers paying £1.50 per week.

“[The National] went into a seasonal lull in terms of circulations,” said Tim Blott, regional managing director at Newsquest, parent company of the paper’s publisher, Herald & Times Group. “Sales [have] dropped below 20,000 but we are still well ahead of my original expectations of the paper. The model still works and it is still making money.”

The early runaway success of the title was an unexpected bonus for Newsquest, whose original plans were based around sustaining a print run of about 15,000.

Blott says the company remains committed to the National and has invested in a website revamp that will launch next month; appointed an assistant editor, Callum Baird, from its sister title the Herald; and secured some “big name” columnists, yet to be announced.



The National was launched off the back of a surge of public interest in politics sparked by last year’s referendum on Scottish independence. Blott believes this passion will re-ignite in the run-up to the UK general election in May, boosting the National’s sales.

“We still see a lot of potential in the paper, particularly in the run-up to the UK election and the importance of the Scottish vote,” said Blott. “I would expect as we get close to the UK general election, and because Scotland has become more politically engaged because of the [Scottish] referendum, as the campaign builds people will take more and more interest in the outcome of the UK general election [and] we would expect that to flow through to sales.”

He said pagination had been kept at 32-pages, the number since launch, despite the sales slowdown but that he expected to see an increase in advertising soon.

“When you go into a seasonal slowdown, pagination tends to be kept reasonably tight as advertising volumes increase,” he said. “We now have a dedicated sales person working on the title. We would expect ad volumes to increase in the near future as a result. That will help pagination.”

The National is edited by Richard Walker, who also edits its stablemate the Sunday Herald.

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