McLellan was sports editor of the North-West Evening Mail and Assistant Editor of The Journal, Newcastle, before joining The Scotsman Publications in 1994 and had two spells editing the Edinburgh Evening News (1997–2002 and 2004–2009) and also edited Scotland on Sunday (2002–2004).
[3] McLellan was dismissed by Johnston Press on 12 April 2012 as editor of The Scotsman in a management restructuring process which involved the scrapping of the editor-in-chief role with the editors of each title reporting directly to the managing director of the Scottish Publishing Unit Andrew Richardson.
[4][5] He was replaced by Ian Stewart (journalist), who remained editor of its sister title Scotland on Sunday.
Former Tory spin doctor Ramsay Jones was suspended during the previous year's party leadership elections.
[9] McLellan advised Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson on communications strategy, direction and content.