THE days of the Sunday Post having a pound-for-pound readership to match that of the Soviet state newspaper Pravda were gone long before the 2014 referendum rolled around.
But the decline of print journalism became for many Scots particularly pronounced during the indyref campaign.
For many Yessers, the papers they had abandoned reading years ago seemed like propaganda tools for the Union. They longed for something else.
There was immense demand for partisan voices to fight in the Yes camp’s corner, launching media careers and legacies which continue to this day.
These are the blogs that challenged Scotland’s mainstream media and changed media habits.
Bella Caledonia
Originally launched in 2007, Bella Caledonia can claim to being the oldest of the prominent pro-independence blogs.
Contributors to its first issue were broadcaster Lesley Riddoch (below) and Andy Wightman, who was then yet to be elected to the Scottish Parliament.
Named after the protagonist of Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things, the site was launched with the high-minded ideal of combing pro-Yes political reporting with cultural coverage designed to combat the “toe-curling” output of BBC Scotland, in the words of founder Mike Small.
READ MORE: More than 50 per cent of Scots want second indyref, new poll shows
During the referendum it boasted staggering readership numbers, with one million readers in September 2014 – around 40,000 per day. Those figures dwarfed legacy outlets like the Daily Telegraph or The Times, Small previously claimed.
Some regular contributors are also featured in The National and familiar names will be appearing in our upcoming book 10 Years of a Changed Scotland.
Wings Over Scotland
With controversies too numerous to mention, Wings Over Scotland’s 13 years of belligerence yet undeniable relevance can be summed up in two episodes oddly enough featuring onetime Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.
While Labour-friendly paper the Daily Record were the year earlier condemning Wings as “nasty, sewage politics that debases public life”, Dugdale (below) in 2015 said that for her dad it was “as relevant a source as the Financial Times”.
That just about sums up the dichotomy of Wings Over Scotland. For the second act of the site’s life, we return again to Dugdale in 2017 after founder Stuart Campbell unsuccessfully sued her for defamation for a crass joke about Tory MP David Mundell’s sexuality.
The site, which during the referendum had been focused primarily on combating the Unionist media, became increasingly active in online battles about transgender people and the so-called “culture wars”.
READ MORE: 'Independence dead? Wishful thinking': Blair Jenkins reflects on indyref 10 years on
After a brief spell away from his keyboard following Craig Murray being jailed for contempt of court after the Alex Salmond trial, Campbell returned to blogging in March 2022 – in a post in which he boasted of making £5679 a month through the site.
Wee Ginger Dug
Paul Kavanagh’s Wee Ginger Dug’s first blog post came in October 2013 featuring a picture of then-Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael’s (below) face photoshopped onto a koala bear.
From the off it showcased Kavanagh’s irreverent humour, with former LibDem minister Danny Alexander being described as going on a “youth training placement with Darth Vader”.
Elsewhere, he describes politicians as “lying, conniving, self-serving basterts” and has Scottish voters giving the blunt rejoinder to the Tories in the 1997 election: “Get you tae fuck.”
Kavanagh, whose blog was named after his dog which sadly died in 2020, writes a daily newsletter for The National.
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