TODAY, The National is going into campaign mode.

The last four and a half years have building up to this moment – when we ramp up our efforts to deliver a majority for independence. The First Minister has said there needs to be an indyref2 before 2021 – and we are ready.

Over the past few months, we’ve shown you how much of an impact we can have. We’ve published the McCrone Report in full, for the first time in newspaper history – with more than 50,000 Scots reading the secret oil briefing in the wake of our coverage. We’ve plastered the infamous Better Together tweet about Scotland’s EU membership in our new billboard campaign – reminding ordinary Scots of the lie we were told in 2014.

We’ve launched our Yes DIY page, a twice-weekly hub for campaigners to learn best practice from each other, and connect everybody in our movement. Our National Roadshows have reached communities across the country – and our reach has connected lots of Yes Groups with new members. According to organisers, featuring an event in our noticeboard can as much as double attendance for talks and town hall meetings.

We’ve led the debate on Scotland’s currency, and our readers are the best informed in the country when it comes to the ins and outs of the new economic case which is being prepared ahead of the next campaign. We’ve given platforms to stories and writers who can’t get a look in with Scotland’s established newspapers.

Our front pages are regularly seen by millions on social media. When we “blanked” Theresa May after she refused our reporter access to a press conference, our cover went viral and reached more than five million people globally. Our New Year front page featuring EU nationals was seen by a significant percentage of the people who live in Scotland – and projected a message to the rest of the world that our country is a welcoming place to live.

We’ve launched a new Sunday edition. Our website traffic is 60% up on last year. Our engagement rate on Facebook compares favourably with any other news outlet in Scotland. We now have 5813 subscribers.

These are all not insignificant achievements. We believe we are already having a huge influence – but we also believe we can do much more.

So today, for the first time, we’re going to spell out to our readers just how much of an impact we can have on the campaign – if we get the full backing of the Yes movement. We’ve taken the ground-breaking decision to let you know exactly how far along the road we are.

We’re going to publicise the number of subscribers that we have, across print and digital, every day on our website (and in the newspaper), and set a number of targets for how many we want to get to.

If we achieve those targets, we will pledge to invest heavily in the paper and directly in Scotland’s campaign for independence.

Find out more our campaign by clicking here.

Support us today with a subscription – find out which offers we are running today by clicking here. For details of our 7-day print subscription, call 0141 302 7300 or email enquiries@nationalsubs.scot

THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN BUILDING UP TO
By National editor, Callum Baird
Do you want a full-time video journalist producing easily shareable clips for all Yes campaigners to use on social media? Do you want a Unionist fact-check and rebuttal service in print and online? Do you want a local journalist to work with Yes groups to produce the right content to target people in your area? Do you want someone to produce monthly “just the facts” downloadable supplements directly targeting No voters?

Today we launch our drive to reach 10,000 subscribers – and commit to investing in the campaign for independence whenever we reach a series of very achievable targets.

This is it. This is what we’ve building up to over the past four and a half years.

I’ve always thought it was my job as National editor to make sure the newspaper was in as strong a position as possible at the start of the next independence campaign. It’s been a privilege – and hard work! – since I took over in 2015.

And now, we can really begin to deliver on our potential.

Well, all you have to do is get behind our campaign today – and persuade as many of your fellow independence supporters to get on board.

Our subscribers already get the best deal in Scotland – the best writers of any newspaper and the best coverage of the debate about our country’s future.

But now we want to start giving more back to you.

It’s never been clearer that the more support The National has, the closer Scotland will be to independence.