Creative Scotland was never going to be able to please everyone with its new funding portfolio.

While 119 organisations have been awarded a share of a £100 million pot, bids had been lodged by 264 organisations that between them were seeking more than £212m.

However, new chief executive Janet Archer and her team were confident this packaged addressed some of the very vocal criticisms of the organisation's previous approach.

They appear to have found a balance that will satisfy many of those critics, with a greater geographical spread of funded organisations and more reliable support for many smaller groups. Against a background of widespread dissatisfaction with the quango, which led to Archer's predecessor Andrew Dixon resigning two years ago, this is no mean feat.

There are some significant losers - the Royal Lyceum and Traverse theatres in Edinburgh have seen their income cut, and the grants of Glasgow's Citizens' and Dundee Rep are renewed on a standstill basis.

These venues may well dispute the claim that it is open to them to increase revenues to make up the deficit. In good times that might be realistic, but in a very tough economic climate the proposition is much harder to justify. But other decisions are clearly a step forward.

It has always made life particularly hard for smaller arts organisations that they tended not to receive three-year funding packages, which were reserved for their bigger cousins.

It did not seem fair that they could be doing very good work, but relied on more precarious funding - even if they would need relatively little to keep them going on a more stable basis.

This seems to have been redressed somewhat in the new portfolio, with 20 organisations gaining regular funding for the first time and 57 that were previously reliant on annual or two-year funding now given the green light to plan for three years.

There is more funding for small visual arts groups, organisations promoting literature and literary events and music ensembles such as the award-winning Dunedin Consort. Grants cover organisations from Greenock to Angus and from Orkney to Dumfries an Galloway.

If there is a charge that could be levelled at this latest attempt by Creative Scotland to wrestle with the demands made, then it is that it could have been bolder. The list of those granted regular funding might be criticised as somewhat safe. However, that is far from a disastrous outcome, given the turmoil that relatively recently engulfed the organisation.