Andrew Neil broke new ground as a journalist and broadcaster before joining The Scotsman as publisher and editor in chief.

Neil grew up on a council estate in Paisley and went on to be educated at Glasgow University.

He worked as a journalist at The Economist for 10 years before becoming the famously youthful editor of The Sunday Times in 1983, aged just 34.

Despite having no national newspaper experience he held the job for 11 years, expanding the paper to 10 sections and making it the biggest in the UK.

He worked closely with the paper's proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, and when Murdoch decided to break the mould of British broadcasting with the UK's first pay-TV channels, he put Neil in charge.

Falling out

But in 1994 Neil fell out with Murdoch and left his empire, criticising his former boss in his autobiography, Full Disclosure.

In May 1997, he took over as editor in chief of European Press holdings, the company that owns and publishes The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News.

He is also a successful broadcaster, and has presented several radio and television series for the BBC.

He was unsuccessful when he applied for the BBC director-general's job, but he described successful candidate Greg Dyke as "the ideal man for the BBC".