The director

SNS director John McLellan is one of Scotland’s most experienced senior journalists, having previously been editor-in-chief of Scotsman Publications.

He started his career while a student at Stirling University in 1982, writing a weekly column about university life in the Stirling Observer, before taking the NCTJ course at Preston Polytechnic. His first full-time job was as a junior reporter on the Chester Observer in 1984 and after a brief spell as a freelance moved to the North-West Evening Mail in Barrow-in-Furness in 1987 where he became sports editor. He joined the newsdesk of The Journal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1990 where he was promoted to assistant editor and then transferred to the Edinburgh Evening News as deputy editor in 1993.

In 1997 he was promoted to editor and after four years he took over as editor of Scotland on Sunday. He returned to edit the Evening News for a further four years at the end of 2004 before becoming editor of The Scotsman and group editor-in-chief in 2009.

On leaving Scotsman Publications in 2012 he became director of communications for the Scottish Conservatives before taking over as SNS director in September 2013.

He also works as an honorary professor in the journalism department of Stirling University and as a freelance journalist.

He has previously served as chair of the SNS editors’ committee, as a Press Complaints Commissioner and as a member of the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Committee