| | | Neil McIntosh | | Editor of The Scotsman |
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Hello Voornaam, It's been a big week at The Scotsman this week, with our brilliant new website launching yesterday and offering a much-improved experience for the tens of thousands of people who join us every day there.
Getting to this stage has, necessarily, been a painstaking process. For the last 18 months, we've been engaged in a project which started by asking readers: what do you love about The Scotsman? And what really annoys you? It turned out people were, largely, very happy with the content: they appreciated our deep coverage of Scottish affairs, the columnists, the photography, the sport, the lifestyle coverage and more. But many of you were profoundly irritated by our website and app: it was too slow, too hard to spend time with, too liable to slow down your device. That vital feedback formed the basis of our redesign, which has gone live this week. We hope you enjoy the much better canvas for The Scotsman's journalism: cleaner pages, faster load times, a more elegant look. Combined with our recently-redesigned printed newspaper, we think The Scotsman's never looked better. It has also been a terrific week for our journalism, with our commitment to cover all of Scotland never more clear. Rural affairs correspondent Katharine Hay has been busy, as you'd expect the week of the Royal Highland Show, although it's been ticks - the insects, rather than the squiggle - which have been picking up much of her attention. Delays in approving the herbicide needed to control the bracken those ticks appear to live on have made the matter worse. And, as Katharine reported, Lyme disease is a horrible thing from which to suffer - an "insidious, destructive and life-destroying disease". It's also been a busy week for our education correspondent, Calum Ross, who's been leading the way reporting on the problems with "unclassified" degrees at the University of Edinburgh. Industrial action over pay means work has not been marked: students are being asked to graduate without any idea what grade they've got, or even if they have a degree. It's an incredible shame for a cohort of students who have also had to deal with Covid marring their time at University - little wonder they're planning to boycott their graduation ceremonies (and it should be noted that the students we spoke to blame University authorities, not lecturers, for the "whole fiasco"). Looking ahead to the weekend, there's plenty to look forward to. We've more from the Royal Highland Show, of course, as well as broadcaster Aasmah Mir talking about growing up in Glasgow as her memoir is published. There's more lovely Scottish property - a focus on high-end modern homes, this week - as well as the usual package of reviews across art, books, film, music and TV. We hope you enjoy your new-look Scotsman - whether it's via the new website, or the new-look newspaper. We're looking forward to bringing you more great journalism - and some further enhancements to your subscription package - in the days ahead. Stay tuned... and keep on telling us what you think. Your feedback is always welcome. Neil McIntosh Editor, The Scotsman | 