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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Aberdeen and Northern Counties Printing
Industry
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Northern Counties - Golspie
It would be difficult to find a greater contrast than that between
the original premises of The Northern Times and the impressive building
now occupied at Golspie Industrial Estate facing Main Street.
Founded in 1899 by Wick bookseller, Donald Mathison, The Northern
Times, affectionately known as ‘The Raggie’, began life
in Station Road. Its birthplace has been described as an ancient
wooden shed with a corrugated iron roof. Heating was dependent on
a cast-iron stove in the middle of the floor, its chimney penetrating
the roof and glowing dangerously in mid-winter. Three sides of the
room were lined with cases of well-worn typefounders type while
the central area was occupied by two aging Linotype machines.
The newspaper was printed on a Wharfedale flatbed press - later
to be replaced by a flatbed Heidelberg cylinder press - which came
to life on Wednesdays and Thursdays, shaking the build-ing in the
process. On the first day the machine printed four pages on one
side of the paper and the final four pages on the reverse side the
next day. The full sheet had to be hand-folded twice to give an
eight-page newspaper, leaving the reader to slit the top to obtain
separate pages. Restrictive practices were unknown in those days
and all hands were involved on publica-tion day in folding ‘The
Raggie’ to get it on the street on time.
The lifeblood of the production line was the two elderly Linotype
machines which were in constant need of nursing. Without the ready
availability of a service engineer, a great deal of ingenuity was
required to sustain their continued existence. It is recorded that
razor blades, string, and even a spring clothes-peg were required
to ensure delivery of the metal slugs. Another problem encountered
daily occurred around lunch-time. The metal pots were heated by
gas jets and as the village housewives switched on their cookers,
gas pressure would drop.
The first editor-manager of The Northern Times was Elgin-born J.K.
Mathison, son of the proprietor, who emigrated to Canada in 1911.
In that year the newspaper was purchased by Donald Macdonald who
was to become owner and editor of The Highland News at Inverness
in 1919.
Andrew Clark, a native of Alloa, who had been with ‘The Raggie’
since its second issue in 1899, was the next editor and remained
in that post until ill-health forced him to retire in 1947. During
his reign neither the National Strike of 1926 nor the serious shortages
experienced throughout the Second World War interrupted the production
of the newspaper.
Following Andrew Clark’s retiral, the paper was edited for
two years by William Cumming before D. Bruce Weir took over the
editorship. It was in that year, 1949, that the Countess of Sutherland’s
family acquired what had then become an ailing company. In 1963
the Countess was elected chair-man.
Bruce Weir did much to promote the paper’s mod-em approach
between 1949 and 1975, in which year he was succeeded by James Henderson,
a native of Wick. It was in his early years of editorship that the
move to new premises was planned. These had been created by the
Highlands and Islands Development Board from seven factory units
at a cost of £210,000. In addition to converting premises,
the HIDB assisted in the purchase and installation of new plant.
This consisted of two Roland 201 sheetfed offset presses, a Bonelli
K56 combination folder and a Wohlenberg 76 guillotine.
Composition of The Northern Times at that time was undertaken on
Compugraphic equipment but in September 1997 this was replaced by
Apple Mac computers and an editorial system based on Quark XPress
and related software. The Apple Macs are also used for setting most
of the newspaper’s other publications and commercial work Two
other firms were linked with The North Times at its new location
through shared direct namely Method Publishing Company Ltd and Seaforth
Photo-Litho Ltd. The former are specialist publishers for Army periodicals
while the latter produced printing plates for custom throughout
Scotland.
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Volume 3 published 1996
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