Decline of the Industry in Scotland 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Scottish publishing and printing was dominated by venerable, independently owned family companies known for their entrepreneurship and craftmanship. The 1st and 2nd World Wars saw businesses suffer under wartime structures and rationing, as well as the loss and death of skilled personnel. The 1950s through to the 1980s brought on a period of merger of Scottish companies as they were bought out, and restructured into larger, multinational conglomerates.

 

In 1861, it was estimated that in Edinburgh alone printing and allied trades employed over 3,000 people. In the 1960s, Edinburgh’s printing industry employed between 5,000 to 7,000 workers. In 2004, however, the number of workers estimated to be working across the Scottish printing and publishing industry as a whole had fallen to 1250. The job losses in Scotland were partly due to global competition as well as changes in printing technology: with the shift from letterpress to litho press and then computer driven printing, there was little demand for Scottish printing skills gained after lengthy apprenticeships, while publishers turned to less expensive overseas sources for their printing work.

 

Nevertheless, Scottish publishing firms carry on today often in more specialised form the proud tradition of issuing stimulating and important works. Like their predecessors over the past two centuries, the Scottish book-based industries have done much to enrich the social, cultural, educational and civic fabric of Scotland, maintaining its worldwide reputation as a centre of literary and cultural innovation and excellence.