THE National, like everyone else, has gone through a lot of change this year. As lockdown hit in March we said farewell to our bustling newsroom and learned to adapt to working from home.
Shops shut and people were at home rightly focusing on staying safe. To make sure our readers were still kept up to date on all the latest news, we put a lot more focus on our digital output.
As we adapted our online strategy we launched National Extra – a fantastic new addition to The National’s already jam-packed turnover of comment and analysis. For this series we commission our best-loved columnists, and new voices, to write an exclusive online-only piece on a topical issue every single day.
Being able to publish live reaction like this has been a fantastic addition to our website. Since launching we’ve featured more than 60 of your favourite columnists and new writers as part of National Extra. We published Joanna Cherry’s response to the resignation of the Advocate General for Scotland as the Internal Market Bill row unfolded, the CEO of Scottish Care’s condemnation when the BBC decided to stop showing all of the First Minister’s briefings and Adam Price’s analysis of increasing Welsh independence support.
We gave a platform to Lucas Fawcett – the young English student who took Question Time viewers by surprise with his powerful explanation of why he backs independence.
Of course, these are just a few examples of what we’ve been able to do. National Extra is yet another tool in our box when it comes to showing why independence is the only way forward for Scotland.
The series sits alongside our Unionist Fact Checking Service as a way for us to bust myths and expose the gaping problems in the UK’s political system.
We now have more than 11,500 subscribers – if you join them you’ll be able to access National Extra and all the other brilliant web features we offer as we head into the most important election of our lifetimes.
Find all our exclusive online-only National Extra content here.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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