Newspaper boss David Snedden, aged 84

David King Snedden, former managing director of the Scotsman Publications, has died at the age of 84.

Snedden was among the last of the old-school newspaper chief executives who rose through the ranks.

His career took him to the top managerial posts in Edinburgh, Belfast, London and finally as chief executive of Trinity International in Liverpool. He was also a director of Reuters and chairman of the Press Association.

Snedden was born in Grangemouth in 1933 and educated at Daniel Stewart’s College, Edinburgh.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant in Edinburgh, his career was put on hold for national service as a pilot officer training with the newlyformed Nato Pilot programme in Canada, where he flew Harvard MK IVS and qualified on T-33 Shooting Star fighter jets.

He always maintained national service kickstarted his life.

He entered the newspaper world at the age of 25 as the chief accountant at the Scotsman Publications during a period of great change.

Although a cherisher of tradition as well as increased profits, he was a moderniser who actively sought new approaches and solutions to problems.

His staff saw him as formal, distant and uncompromising, but also fair, and all agreed he provided strong, clear leadership.

In 1967 he was appointed managing director of the Belfast Telegraph at the start of the Troubles, and received a number of death threats.

During his time in Belfast, the paper was first to publish political opinion polls, which directly influenced the calling of the 1969 election in Northern Ireland.

He returned to Edinburgh in 1970 to take up the position of managing director of the Scotsman Publications, where he was able to develop many of his commercial ideas.

The Scotsman reached its highest circulation during his time there, and he broke new ground by forming a syndicate to secure the franchise for the competing media of Radio Forth.

Snedden’s success in Edinburgh took him to London as assistant managing director of Thomson Regional Newspapers, and he was soon promoted to joint managing director. But he was missing the hands-on experience of running a daily newspaper business, and when he was head-hunted by what was to become the Trinity International Group in Liverpool as its chief executive, he viewed it as his escape.

The Liverpool papers were bedevilled by industrial relations problems, which he had to solve to progress the business.

The Toxteth Riots confirmed that the Post and Echo required urgent modernisation, and the evening paper took the bold step of changing its political stance.

In Liverpool, his interests in newspaper community involvement led him to hire Concorde to fly sponsors and advertisers from London to Liverpool to raise the profile of the Grand National, while readers were treated with a flight to Iceland and back.

In 1993 he retired and set up home in the Scottish Highlands, near Boat of Garten, looking directly over to Cairngorm.

As a young man, he hid his youthful, sandy good looks behind a front of formality, which became his blunt persona.

Yet his close friends knew an entirely different David Snedden – a fun-loving family man, rugby and football enthusiast, keen golfer, walker, lover of the outdoors, a game fisherman of artistry – and record catches – on the Spey, in North Uist and Harris.

He never forgot his time in the cockpit of his Shooting Star fighter in Canada, as well as the team spirit he found there.

He translated it into his credo for life and defined him as a person – aim high, shoot straight, build your team with care, accept calculated risk, develop integrity and teamwork – and it brought him significant success in almost everything he touched.

The loss of his beloved daughter Ann, in 2007, sat heavily upon him.

He leaves behind his second wife Jane, two sons and five grandchildren.

David Snedden.