ON AUGUST 7, 1988, the very first issue of Scotland on Sunday hit the newsstands, its arrival accompanied by an advertising campaign with this slogan: "Scots have always had minds of their own. Now they have a Sunday newspaper to match." It was a shameless attempt at flattery. This, the campaign seemed to say, is exactly the kind of newspaper that intelligent, thoughtful people like your good self should be buying - so why not give it a go?
One thousand issues on and we are still here, defying the cynics who forecast we would disappear before issue number 50. For that simple fact we have you, the reader, to thank. Some of you have been with us from the very start; most of you joined us
somewhere along the way. Whatever the case, we thank you. As the air stewardess sometimes says over the intercom on a flight: we appreciate you choosing us.
This, after all, is your newspaper. It is part of your life, your Sunday routine, whether read with a cup of tea over the breakfast table or with a glass of wine on a Sunday evening as you ready yourself for the start of another working week. We are constantly aware that when you pick up your Scotland on Sunday you have expectations of us, and that we have obligations to you. An obligation to engage you; to inform you; to surprise you; to entertain you.
Almost 20 years on, we still try every week to live up to the bold declaration in the very first Scotland on Sunday leader column. It said the paper would set out to be "the voice of reason, common sense and enterprise - with a Scottish accent". It went on: "Scotland on Sunday will stand for the integrity of the Scottish institutions that distinguish the nation's history, character and conduct, yet will not shrink from questioning them when challenge is required."
We believe we have lived up to this challenge. This will always be the newspaper that Scots can rely on to hold up a mirror to their opinion - and at the same time shape and inform that opinion. In our Spectrum magazine today we highlight just some of the best writing and pictures we have offered you down the years as we have reported the people, events and life of this country. We are proud of Scotland and proud to be Scotland's leading quality newspaper.
But what of the future? In our news pages today we publish ideas from Scotland on Sunday's young readers on how to make this great country even better. They range from the hilarious to the impressively cerebral, but what shines out most is the pride, passion and talent of young Scots. If they are our future, then it can only be bright.
Of course, the world has changed beyond recognition since August 1988. Who would have thought that the weather, once the most mundane of conversational topics, would become one of the most pressing global concerns? When this newspaper started out, the most advanced piece of technology in our news room was a fax machine, producing blurred facsimiles on a roll of shiny paper. Google-less, our journalists had to check facts by phone or through the talents of a dedicated library that relied on reference books and carefully collated newspaper cuttings. For the individual reporter, the most advanced piece of technology was the spiral notebook.
Today, Scotland on Sunday is read by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide through our website. Readers have online chats with our columnists; they vote in online polls; our correspondents broadcast their forthright opinions through downloadable podcasts.
Yet the intentions set out in that first Scotland on Sunday leader column, produced with technology that now seems more 19th than 20th century, stand the test of time with ease. That leader ended thus: "That, then, is your newspaper, aiming to show that it has the will to inform and the courage to argue, the wit to analyse and the talent to amuse."
It was an honourable ambition then and it remains so today. We at Scotland on Sunday have tried to live up to it, to the best of our talents, for the past 1,000 weeks. On a few occasions we may have fallen short of the mark, and for that we apologise. But we believe that most of the time we have been more than equal to the task. We hope we can have the pleasure of your company as we head into the next 1,000 weeks.
