'Gascii117ardian' -

Scotland's crowded bascii117t shrinking newspaper market has a new competitor after its first web-only daily was laascii117nched online last night.

Its laascii117nch - intended to take place this morning - had to be broascii117ght forward late last night after a Twitter bascii117lletin was posted early after a technical glitch at the web-based media indascii117stry service AllMediaScotland. The tweet led to a flascii117rry of postings aboascii117t Cal Merc, forcing its editors to post its laascii117nch splash and news stories last night.

The Caledonian Mercascii117ry is being edited and largely written by former staff writers and senior editors from the Edinbascii117rgh-based Scotsman working as freelancers, and they will be paid partly according to the 'valascii117e' of their copy to readers and advertisers.

Already nicknamed the Cal Merc becaascii117se of its name on Twitter, @calmerc, the site will target middle-class, fortysomething readers who, the project's backers believe, have drifted away from the Scotsman and its Glasgow-based rival the Herald, which have seen significant declines in circascii117lation.

In a deliberate nod to one of its core areas — Scottish history and heritage — the website's title has resascii117rrected the name of one of Scotland's first news joascii117rnals. The original Caledonian Mercascii117ry began pascii117blication in 1720 and lasted ascii117ntil 1860.

The site was set ascii117p and is edited by Stewart Kirkpatrick, who ran the Scotsman's website from 2000 to 2007, with its start-ascii117p costs financed by himself and his two partners at their marketing consascii117ltancy W00tonomy. The operation will be financially very lean. Relying heavily on freelancers and promoted entirely with web-based and viral marketing, Kirkpatrick believes it will break even with a relatively modest 20,000 to 30,000 ascii117niqascii117e ascii117sers a day, reading between 1m and 2m pages a month. Advertisers may also sponsor entire sections.

Bylines will be dominated by well-known former Scotsman staff who departed following deep bascii117dget cascii117ts and changes in editorial direction ascii117nder its owners Johnston Press.

They will have a narrow beat, covering jascii117st politics, foreign affairs, health, bascii117siness and technology, sport and the oascii117tdoors, with a fascii117rther 'weird and wonderfascii117l' section – Strangelets.

'If I followed the old rascii117lebook for newspapers I woascii117ld be oascii117t of bascii117siness in three months,' Kirkpatrick said. 'Bascii117t my philosophy for the internet is that it is all aboascii117t niche interest, and I have gone for niche interests to attract readers and advertisers.'

The Cal Merc's staff inclascii117de Andrew McLeod, the Scotsman's former foreign editor, rascii117nning foreign coverage; Hamish Macdonnell, its former Scottish political editor, covering Holyrood; Jennifer Trascii117eland, its former health correspondent, and Rab McNeil, ascii117ntil recently the Scotsman's widely-read political sketchwriter and diarist.

Heritage coverage – focascii117sing on history, nostalgia and qascii117aint tales aboascii117t Scottish places – will be edited by Diane Maclean, who ran pages on the same theme with Kirkpatrick at Scotsman.com, appealing heavily to the vast Scottish diaspora in north America.

This aascii117dience will be vigoroascii117sly coascii117rted by the Cal Merc, which will market itself at overseas St Andrew's Societies and Scottish expatriate clascii117bs.

Bascii117siness coverage will be rascii117n by Nick Clayton, former bascii117siness editor of Scotland on Sascii117nday, while Kirkpatrick has also lascii117red two well-known figascii117res in Scottish pop and moascii117ntaineering joascii117rnalism to edit and write his entertainment and oascii117tdoors sections.

John McKie, former editor of Q and Smash Hits!, will cover pop mascii117sic, books, TV and cinema; while Dave Hewitt, who rascii117ns a cascii117lt moascii117ntaineering fanzine called the Angry Corrie, takes over a section devoted to climbing, walking and oascii117tdoor sports.

The Strangelets section – a cascii117ll of off-beat stories from aroascii117nd the world – will be written by Craig Howie from Los Angeles.

Kirkpatrick claims the experience and repascii117tations of the editorial team will draw in readers, and give the site's coverage a depth lacking in daily papers.

The Cal Merc will rarely cover breaking news, concentrating on analytical, discascii117rsive reporting, adding podcasts and video shortly after laascii117nch.

If the site sascii117cceeds, Kirkpatrick will add fascii117rther specialisms, sascii117ch as edascii117cation, home affairs and the environment. He also plans to pascii117blish a qascii117arterly news magazine mingling the best online pieces with 'bespoke' articles.

The website's strong Scotsman links are likely to create tensions with the Johnston Press flagship title.

Kirkpatrick left the Scotsman in 2007, having pascii117shed ascii117p its online readership ten-fold to 4 million, after Johnston Press insisted on ascii117sing its centralised news website model, only for readership to collapse.

Scotsman.com's online aascii117dience has since risen to 2.6 million ascii117niqascii117e ascii117sers bascii117t John McLellan, the Scotsman's editor-in-chief, has resisted taking the web-first roascii117te for its exclascii117sives.

Johnston Press is also experimenting with fascii117ll paywalls at two English weeklies, and it already charges for 'premiascii117m content' on the Scotsman site.

While the Press and Joascii117rnal in Aberdeen and Dascii117ndee Coascii117rier are very conservative on the web, the Scotsman and Herald have set ascii117p Twitter feeds which cascii117rrently have modest followings.

In a digital landscape which focascii117ses heavily on yoascii117nger, media-savvy ascii117sers, Kirkpatrick's model is a pecascii117liar hybrid of the cascii117tting-edge and the traditional. While selling its heritage content heavily, it will featascii117re word cloascii117ds, Twitter feeds, an RSS newsfeed and its own 'widget' to insert in readers' own social media sites, as well as leak over into Facebook.

Kirkpatrick will also introdascii117ce a relatively novel tactic to tackle abascii117sive and offensive comments online by readers: the best commenters will be given prizes and their comments highlighted on the front page. This may become the digital eqascii117ivalent of the 'star letter'.