The newspaper is based in Kirkwall but printed in Glasgow for sale every Thursday.
[2] The newspaper was first founded in 1854 as A Literary and Commercial Advertiser for Orkney and Zetland by James Urquhart Anderson, who established the first printing press on the island in the 1820s, and his son of the same name.
[1] During the Second World War, The Orcadian published a special armed forces newspaper titled Orkney Blast.
[1] Following the formation of the Orkney Media Group in 2007, Orkney Today was closed in 2010, citing financial issues and low circulation, making The Orcadian again the island's only newspaper.
This coincided with a relaunch of The Orcadian on 1 March 2018, with the newspaper redesigned and resized to tabloid format.