Ian Saunders

A former news editor credited with boosting his newspaper’s reputation and sales in a career spanning more than four decades has died, aged 79.

Ian Saunders spent 25 years on The Scotsman, latterly in the role of Scottish news editor, before retiring in 1993.

Starting out as a trainee at the Edinburgh Evening News at the age of 16, Ian went on to work in the Scottish offices of the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, as well as a spell in London with the historic John Bull magazine.

He had been celebrating his wife Evelyn’s birthday during a break in Pitlochry and Crieff when he fell ill and later died in Perth Royal Infirmary last Saturday.

Ian’s lengthy career was only broken by his national service stint in the RAF, where his journalistic training earned him the title of Clerk to the Commanding Officer.

Having completed his service in 1954, he returned to Scotland and worked on various newspapers, including the Scottish Daily Mail and the Scottish Daily Express, before joining The Scotsman in 1968, initially as a senior reporter based in Edinburgh.

He would spend a quarter of a century with this newspaper, including as education correspondent, religious correspondent, deputy news editor and finally Scottish news editor.

During his time, he received numerous ‘herograms’ from colleagues and editors, such as this one from then-editor Chris Baur following the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

It read;  “Our coverage has been splendid and I’m particularly grateful to you for what you did to make it a success. It may interest you to know that we shifted some 36,000 extra copies in bulk sales over the two week period and that in the final full week it looks as though our average daily circulation was about 3,000 up on the same period last year. That was due in no small measure to your efforts.”

After his retirement, Ian pursued his interests in bowling and reading, as well as travelling around the world.

He is survived by his wife Evelyn, by their son Paul and daughter Jocelyn, and by his brother Alan.

Ian’s funeral will take place at 2pm on Tuesday (January 22) at Warriston Crematorium, Lorimer Chapel.

A full obituary published in The Scotsman can be read here.