A Scottish publisher has appointed a new digital chief after claiming 20pc sales growth over the past year.

Gordon Stevenson, left, has been appointed as head of digital at Newsquest’s Herald and Times Group, after leaving Trinity Mirror’s Media Scotland division where he worked for 21 years.

The group, which publishes The Herald, Sunday Herald, Evening Times and The National, said its combined newspaper sales and digital subscriptions rose to more than 91,000 in the first half of 2015, up from 76,000 for the same period last year.

It comes on the back of the launch of The National, a pro-independence Scottish daily, by the Herald and Times Group last November.

The company said the new title’s print and digital subscriptions had grown to around 16,922 since its launch.

It added that digital subscribers to Heraldscotland.com, which has a metered paywall, had increased by 3,190 to just over 14,000.

The group also said that the combined readership for The Herald and Sunday Herald from newspaper sales and digital subscriptions had increased by 2.1pc from 42,657 to 43,533 in the 12 months to June 2015.

The ABC figures released in February for the second half of 2014 showed that the Sunday Herald increased its average circulation by 34.7pc year-on-year to 32,021.

In his new role, Gordon, who was previously head of digital at Media Scotland, will lead the group’s digital offering with a focus on online audience growth and engagement, while the company is also searching for a head of social media.

Gordon said: “I am excited to be joining such a dynamic and growing media group, and look forward to contributing to a significant expansion in online audience and revenue.”

Tom Thomson, managing editor of the Herald & Times Group said: “It is gratifying to see a rise in our paying readership and the vote of confidence from our readers which this indicates.

“We are pleased at Gordon’s choice to join us as we inject new expertise and ambition into our digital content creation and advertising offerings with the first of two new key appointments.”

In June last year, the group said its online paid subscriptions had surpassed the 10,000 mark for the first time and audited ABC figures released last August revealed an audience increase of 39pc during the period January to June 2014.