The Glasgow Herald began in 1783 as the Glasgow Advertiser, but switched its name in 1802. Its ownership changed frequently during the nineteenth century, but it was always owned by a collection of local businessmen and lawyers, along with some of the leading managers of the paper.

Samuel Hunter, editor from 1803 to 1836, was a surgeon with military experience. His successor, George Outram, editor from 1836 to 1856, was an advocate (a lawyer) who dabbled in light verse. James Pagan (1856-70) was the first professional journalist to be appointed as editor. He was briefly followed by the academic, Professor William Jack (1870-75), then by James Stoddart (1875-88) and Charles Russell (1888-1907). The latter two were, like Pagan, trained journalists.

The politics of the paper moved back and forth. Under Hunter, the Herald was staunchly Tory, for instance opposing the demand for the First Reform Act. Thereafter, the paper drifted to a mildly Whiggish stance, and also supported the first Scottish nationalist movement in the early and mid-1850s. It continued to be moderately Liberal until Gladstone's Irish Home Bill of 1886, which it strenuously opposed, henceforth becoming an eloquent advocate of Liberal Unionism.

Hunter established the Herald as the leading Glasgow paper in an intensely competitive marketplace in the early part of the century, and by the 1850s all its older rivals had folded. Circulation rose from about 1,600 in 1832 to 3,400 in 1843 and 4,500 in 1855. In 1859, it shifted to daily publication, and within a decade was selling 25,000 copies.

Technical innovations and journalistic improvements consolidated the paper's dominance. In 1868 it became one of only two British papers with telegraphic wires going directly into its offices, and it also introduced new Hoe presses that year, followed in 1875 by the installation of rotary presses. Under Pagan, news coverage was widened and editorial material increased; both Stoddart and Russell greatly improved its literary and artistic sections.