The Digger


The Digger is a 24-page magazine in Glasgow, Scotland which focusses on crime stories. It is published weekly, in an A5 newsletter format. In 2012, the magazine went from newsprint to glossy.
The magazine was founded by James Cruickshank in 2004, and currently has eight full-time staff members, of which five are accredited journalists; two are full-time court reporters. The Digger also employs lawyers to legal the magazine every week.
In 2007, the magazine claimed to have a circulation of up to 10,000. Distribution is through 600 shops in the Greater Glasgow area. Sales fluctuate between 6,500 and 10,000 each week.
The paper focuses on stories about local organised crime, and alleged corruption within Police Scotland and Glasgow City Council, sometimes also naming alleged local drug dealers and paedophiles. The paper was the subject of a BBC Scotland documentary in 2006. At one stage Cruickshank was banned from covering stories at Glasgow Sheriff Court. In April 2018 the magazine published an article about a paedophile and mixed up two men with the same name, using the wrong man's picture in the article. The magazine then refused to write an apology article and carried on with the publishing of their magazine.