Picture credit: SNP Twitter feed.
Scotland woke up to a new pro-independence newspaper today (24 November) with the five-day test launch of The National.
Published by Newsquest and with a 50p price tag, the masthead describes the title as “The newspaper that supports an independent Scotland”.
A digital edition is also available with a five-day subscription priced at £1.50.
A sister publication to the Herald, the Sunday Herald and the Evening Times in Scotland, The National’s front-page headline reads “Give Scotland the powers to cut child poverty”.
The title is edited by Richard Walker of the the Sunday Herald – the only paper to come out in favour of leaving the UK in the run-up to September’s referendum – and was launched at a SNP rally in Glasgow at the weekend. However, the editorial states that the paper is not “a mouthpiece of the Scottish National Party and the government it leads”.
The first editorial of The National says: “The status quo is no longer an option and there is an unquenchable desire for greater devolution.
“Quite simply, the Scottish people want to be more directly and deeply involved in the decisions that affect them and the generations to come.
“It is with this uppermost in mind that today we launch the National, a daily newspaper that will fly a vibrant flag for independence and the right for Scots to govern themselves.”
Commenting on the launch, Tim Blott, managing director, Newsquest Herald & Times, 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.”
