Sir John Leng (10 April 1828 – 13 December 1906) was a newspaper proprietor and Liberal Party politician in Scotland.

[1] Becoming assistant teacher at a private school, he sent letters to the Hull Advertiser, which attracted the notice of Edward Francis Collins, then the editor, and led to his appointment in 1847, at the age of 19, as sub-editor and reporter.

His wide practical knowledge of newspaper work enabled him to reorganise both the literary staff and machinery.

In June 1870, Leng was one of the first Scottish newspaper proprietors to establish an office in Fleet Street, London, with direct telegraphic communication with Dundee.

He was the first to attempt illustrations in a daily paper, and when the primitive pantographic method was superseded by zincography, he founded a zincographic and photographic studio as part of the office equipment.

In January 1858 he established the People's Journal, a weekly newspaper, which soon reached the largest circulation of any similar paper in Scotland.

[2] A literary weekly paper, the People's Friend, was founded by him in 1869, and he lived to see it reach a circulation which rivalled that of London periodicals of its kind.

[1] In September 1889, on the death of Joseph Firth[3] one of two Member of Parliament for Dundee, Leng was returned without opposition in the liberal interest.

Among the topics that he brought before the House of Commons were the excessive hours of railway guards, engine-drivers, and firemen; the appointment of female inspectors of factories and workshops and the boarding-out of pauper children by parochial boards.

In 1901, he established a trust "to stimulate literary and scientific pursuits amongst the youth of Dundee" and to encourage and promote the teaching of the Songs of Scotland.