The Scottish indigenous press faces a double challenge. First, in common with the UK press as a whole, it needs to devise a strategic response to the digital revolution in order to survive.

Second, because of the key role played by journalism in contributing to an increasingly distinct democratic culture north of the border and also in shaping contemporary Scottishness, it needs robustness, depth and range to secure its future appeal.

How much longer can the existing print-focused business model work? There is certainly evidence that this still attracts readers where there is a strong demand for local and regional news.

The conundrum for newspapers is how the increasingly ubiquitous online presence that accompanies print can be made to generate relatively secure revenues through various kinds of payment and advertising.

Mapping Futures for News, last year’s report from the Institute for Advanced Studies, showed that Scottish editors were thinking about this but had not yet resolved clear ways forward.

Given that younger readers are digital natives, that older ones inevitably depart the scene and that intense competition from London titles has cut into sales year-on-year, new survival strategies cannot be long escaped.

The Herald has a venerable brand that - in common with other Scottish titles - has lost significant readership year-on-year. If it is now intent on developing a multiplatform model to maximise its revenue, how will it make the difficult trade-offs between its print and digital editions? 

One obvious answer is to enter the highly uncertain terrain now traversed by others . As the former Guardian editor and veteran commentator Peter Preston recently noted: "It’s an infernally difficult balancing act to get right."

Like me, online readers of HeraldScotland will have noticed how little content is now available without registration. This access requirement allows the paper to sample its readership and is a step towards a multiplatform revenue model. But while reader registration tests demand, to register does not necessarily mean you will buy digital content.

What would be the incentive to buy in? Presumably, the company is calculating that access to online content not otherwise available in print will attract sufficient eyeballs to make a serious difference to its financial future.

Newspapers elsewhere in Britain and the USA are pursuing a range of options in digitising their content and seeking revenues from both readerships and advertisers. The most clear-cut solutions have been found by specialist publications such as the Financial Times and The Economist, which appeal to affluent professionals and decision-makers.

The FT has a metered paywall to manage access to its content. If you want to read it in full, you must subscribe. But casual non-paying readers are allowed a taster of 10 articles per month as a come-on to buy in to what is a highly profitable enterprise. The Economist’s digital content has also been a major revenue complement to its print edition.

What about generalist newspapers, whose path is much stonier? The Guardian has followed an "open web" approach to its content. This has increased its digital presence (not least in America) and Guardian Media Group is now pursuing a "digital first" strategy, which means that its print edition will be gradually downgraded. It wishes to exploit a new readership in the USA as a source of revenue.

The Times, by contrast, has put its news behind a paywall since June 2010 and while it allows free one-month trials, has made its content exclusively available to paying subscribers. We do not yet know whether the 79,000 digital subscribers claimed in June more than compensate for lost print readers or indeed whether this strategy has bolstered News International’s revenue streams.

The New York Times also has a paywall, introduced for a second time this March, with casual readers allowed 20 free pages a month. Here too the jury is out as to whether the title is making serious money and compensating for the decline in print sales. Claims to have a million subscribers are widely discounted by experts, who put new digital readers at around a quarter of this figure.

While Scotland’s post-devolution crisis in the press has deepened, of late political attention has focused mainly on the creation of a Scottish digital channel, with a new public service television broadcaster at its core.

Quite how this is to be funded remains a moot point. An eventual new digital channel and the launch of local TV would increase the range of media voices in Scotland.

But the more immediate risk is that there will be fewer voices if the press does not find new business models.

Philip Schlesinger is Professor in Cultural Policy at the University of Glasgow and a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.