The Scottish Press

Abstract

This chapter explores the history of the Scottish periodical press from its establishment in the 1640s through to 1800. While James Watson’s Edinburgh Gazette – thought to have been Scotland’s first recognisably modern newspaper – dates to around 1699, the Scottish press was active in printing and distributing the news from the 1640s onwards. The chapter illustrates how from their Anglocentric foundations, Scottish newspapers and magazines gradually turned their attention towards local events and concerns, and the most successful productions of the eighteenth-century Scottish periodical press were those which focused on Scottish news and enabled the facilitation of local economies. The chapter also includes a case study of the reporting of the Jacobite Rising of 1715 in Scottish newspapers and broadsides.