Long Live Print: The Future of Scottish Journalism

For last month’s cover story, we spoke to some of our peers in the Scottish arts community about local arts journalism and its necessity for a thriving arts scene. The occasion for such an enquiry was the almost-demise of the very magazine you’re reading. After 21 years of covering culture in Scotland, it looked, in early September, like The Skinny had published its final edition following some financial difficulties. That, thankfully, turned out not to be the case, but during the short window in which it looked like we were closing, there was deep concern expressed within the Scottish arts community about the future of print journalism and arts criticism in particular. 

It’s no secret that arts pages within mainstream newspapers and magazines have dwindled in recent decades. Scotland is lucky that this hole has been plugged, to a certain extent, by an alternative press. The likes of The Skinny, The List and SNACK in print, and the likes of Artmag online, have continued to carve out space to dig into the unique and constantly evolving art scene on our doorstep, and to celebrate the endlessly inventive work that continues to get made in this nation despite the increased instability of working within the creative industries.

There are various schemes and campaigns being proposed by the Scottish Government to improve the health of the arts in Scotland, from its commitment to increasing Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding, to a basic income for artists being piloted, but no governmental help is currently being offered to strengthen local arts journalism. If Scotland's culture secretary, Màiri McAllan, was looking for any suggestions, however, we got several from the people we spoke to last month. 

“It’s always a bit depressing that an organisation has to literally collapse before anyone in parliament sits up and takes notice,” says Vicky Kavanagh, station manager at Edinburgh community radio station EHFM, when we asked her about the future of arts journalism in Scotland. “Hopefully in the coming years we see this sector receive the financial support and protection it vitally needs.” Her argument is that local arts critics and journalists are, in themselves, creatives, and so should fall under the umbrella of Creative Scotland’s support. “[Arts journalists] are part of a delicate but very important ecosystem of art distribution. We want to see dedicated funds for local arts criticism collectives so that what happened to The Skinny won’t happen again.”

Kenny Lavelle, the editor of Glasgow-based arts mag SNACK, agrees with Kavanagh that arts journalism should fall under Creative Scotland’s remit. “I’d like Creative Scotland to acknowledge the value of high-quality in-print arts journalism by developing direct methods of funding, while respecting the independence of the titles,” he tells me. Lavelle also makes recommendations for some indirect forms of funding. He suggests that arts institutions that already receive government support have a responsibility to spend more of their marketing budget locally. “Perhaps a solution to the arts media funding gap can be found within the terms of any Creative Scotland funding,” he says, “that perhaps a minimum percentage of any marketing budget derived from government funding should be allocated for the country’s in-print arts media.”

One local institution that already does this is Edinburgh cinema Filmhouse, which regularly advertises in magazines like The Skinny and The List. Filmhouse’s executive director Andrew Simpson is of the mind, though, that arts journalism needs more than local advertising to survive. “I think we need to find new models for making journalism and arts criticism sustainable,” he tells me, “as it's clearly so hard to put both publications and arts criticism/journalism careers together economically in 2026.”  

Jessica Brough, the director and founder of Fringe of Colour, says we need “a robust system of economic and participatory support” to make arts journalism sustainable for all those who make it, not just so arts criticism continues in Scotland but so it can flourish. “Writers need to be able to feel like this is a genuine career option,” Brough tells me, “without the constant financial precarity that restricts our ability to expand and enjoy our craft.” For Brough, the health and quality of arts journalism has never been more crucial. “We need to reiterate the need for high-quality and intentional arts writing at a time when generative AI, social media clickbait, and influencer culture risks devaluing the work.”

Whether it’s by government support, advertising, private funding, or through some sort of readership subscription model, it’s clear that sustainable arts journalism is vital to supporting the great art being made in Scotland. But for author Heather Parry, who’s also the co-founder and editorial director of literary magazine Extra Teeth, the importance of arts writing goes well beyond simply documenting a scene. “All of us at Extra Teeth feel that it is desperately important to protect the human in the arts, not just for art's sake but for political and social reasons too,” she says. “The very concepts of critical thinking, community-building and creative resistance are under attack and arts journalism is key to protecting them.”