 | |
 Front cover of the final edition published in 2018 | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact |
| Owner | Newsquest |
| Publisher | Herald & Times Group |
| Editor | Neil Mackay (2015–2018) |
| Founded | 2 February 1999 (1999-02-02) |
| Ceased publication | 2 September 2018; 7 years ago (2018-09-02) |
| Relaunched | Sunday National The Herald on Sunday |
| Political alignment | Pro-independence Centre-left |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 200 Renfield Street Glasgow |
| Country | Scotland |
| Circulation | 18,387 (July to December 2017)[1] |
| Sister newspapers | Glasgow Times The Herald The National |
| Website | heraldscotland.com |
TheSunday Herald was a ScottishSunday newspaper, published between 7 February 1999 and 2 September 2018. Originally abroadsheet, it was published incompact format from 20 November 2005. The paper was known for having combined acentre-left stance with support forScottish devolution, and laterScottish independence. The last edition of the newspaper was published on 2 September 2018 and it was replaced with Sunday editions ofThe Herald andThe National.[2]
In July 2012, the newspapers' publishers classified theSunday Herald as a regional instead of a national title.[3]
Between July and December 2013, theSunday Herald sold an average of 23,907 copies, down 7.5% on the 12 months previous.[4] After declaring support forScottish independence, TheSunday Herald received a huge increase in sales, with circulation in September 2014 up 111% year on year.[5]
By 2017 circulation had fallen to 18,387 and in August 2018 staff were told they would now be expected to work on theHerald too, with the potential for the two titles to be combined at some point in the future.[6]
In early 1998 the Scottish Media Group (SMG), then led by chairmanGus Macdonald, decided to create aSunday sister for its existing national morning titleThe Herald, because theGlasgow-based media group was losing advertising revenue to rival newspaper publishers every Sunday. In March 1998 the media company's board appointedAndrew Jaspan, then the publisher and managing director ofThe Big Issue and a former editor ofScotland on Sunday,The Scotsman andThe Observer to examine the business case for launching a new Sunday title. In October 1998 SMG (now known asSTV Group plc), which also owns the broadcasterSTV, committed to putting £10 million behind the new paper's launch.
Jaspan assembled a launch team including formerHue & Cry singerPat Kane, TV producer and presenterMuriel Gray andBBC political commentatorIain Macwhirter and designer Simon Cunningham. Other former BBC television and radio journalists who joined the title includedLesley Riddoch, Torcuil Crichton and Pennie Taylor. A number of formerScotsman andScotland on Sunday staff also joined the new paper, as did several journalists fromThe Big Issue's Scottish edition includingNeil Mackay, David Milne and Iain S Bruce.
TheSunday Herald was launched as a seven-section newspaper on 7 February 1999.[7] It was advertised with the slogan "No ordinary Sunday".[8] The use of the word "fuck" in the first edition of the magazine alienated older and moreconservative readers, but the paper quickly won a following among more liberal-minded Scots. It also won a raft of awards for its journalism, design and photography, in the UK and internationally, and secured the former archbishopRichard Holloway andOn the Waterfront scriptwriterBudd Schulberg as regular contributors. Its web version gained a large readership in the United States because of its consistent anti-George W. Bush and anti-Iraq War line.
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After having over-paid for acquisitions during the dot-com era,Scottish Media Group was in serious financial trouble by 2002. The company decided to sell its publishing arm, whose assets includedThe Herald,Sunday Herald andEvening Times and magazines includingScottish Farmer,Boxing News andThe Strad and a publicauction, accompanied by a heated public debate, ensued.
When it looked like theBarclay brothers, owners of rival papersThe Scotsman andScotland on Sunday, were set to become the publishing group's owners, questions were raised in theScottish Parliament. Had Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay andAndrew Neil succeeded in acquiring the fledglingSunday Herald, they would have closed it down to give a clear run to their ownScotland on Sunday title, and mergedThe Herald withThe Scotsman.[citation needed] Determined to prevent the paper being acquired by those with no sympathy for its centre-left ethos, Jaspan led a campaign to keep it out of their hands.[citation needed] This included lobbying seniorLabour Party (UK) politicians at their September 2002 conference inBlackpool.[citation needed]
The campaign proved successful, with even theFinancial Times questioning whether it was right for the Barclays to have a monopoly of quality papers published in Scotland. TheSunday Herald and related titles were sold instead toNewsquest (aGannett company) for £216 million. This was cleared by the UKDepartment of Trade and Industry in March 2003, partly because it was persuaded the papers would keep theireditorial independence under Gannett's ownership and because of Gannett's creation of a new Scottish division to run the acquired papers from Glasgow. The DTI report said: "We do not expect the transfer adversely to affect the current editorial freedom, the current editorial stance, content or quality of the SMG titles, accurate presentation of news or freedom of expression." The deal completed on 5 April 2003.
Jaspan resigned in 2004 to become editor ofThe Age in Melbourne, Australia.Richard Walker was appointed as his successor. Walker, a former production journalist on both theDaily Record andScotland on Sunday had been with the title since its launch and had served as deputy to Jaspan for five years.
Richard Walker took theSunday Heraldtabloid in November 2005 which brought a temporary uplift in circulation. Sales settled at 58,000 (source:Audit Bureau of Circulations) (ABC),[9] and readership at 195,000 (source: National Readership Survey[10]). The week before theSunday Herald was launched in February 1999, the Barclays'Scotland on Sunday sold more than 130,000 copies. This had fallen to c.46,000 in June 2012, about 75% higher than the circulation of the Sunday Herald (26,074) according to ABC figures.
Walker was behind the launch of the blog site Sundayheraldtalk.com[11] in September 2006.
In April 2006 theSunday Herald's Scottish political editor,Paul Hutcheon, won both Political Journalist of the Year and Journalist of the Year in theScottish Press Awards for articles revealing thatDavid McLetchie, leader of theScottish Conservative and Unionist Party, had abused taxpayers' money to pay for taxi fares for legal and party work. Hutcheon made use of theScottish Freedom of Information Act to establish his case, which ultimately led to McLetchie resigning both as Conservative leader and as a partner in Edinburgh law firm Tods Murray.
On 22 May 2011, the paper became the first mainstream UK publication to name a person involved with a super injunction. InCTB v News Group Newspapers the claimant, afootballer previously known only as CTB, was identified by publishing as its front page an image ofRyan Giggs whose eyes are covered with a black bar which features the word "censored".[12][13] The paper argued that the injunction was not valid in Scotland which is a separate jurisdiction and only applicable to England,[12] however one legal opinion suggests that the Scottish news outlet may be in breach an English injunction due to a House of Lords ruling in the 1987Spycatcher case.[14] The paper was awarded the European Newspaper of the Year in the category of weekend paper by the European Newspaper Congress in 2011.[15]
TheSunday Herald was the only Scottish newspaper to back a vote for independence in the2014 Scottish independence referendum.[16][17]Alasdair Gray designed a special front page for theSunday Herald in May 2014 when it came out in favour of a "Yes" vote.[18][19][20][21] The cover consisted of a large thistle framed byScottish saltires.[22]
The newspaper ceased publication in late 2018, after falling sales.[23]
