YouTube plaques are awarded to content creators who hit certain milestones, Ross already has 1 one million plaque and 4 100k plaques.
Written by Midlothian View Editor, Phil Bowen
If you play Fortnite then it is highly likely that you know who Clix is.
If you don’t play Fortnite but know someone who does, then they will most probably know who Clix is.
And if you don’t know what Fortnite is, well it is a popular online video game developed by Epic Games, first released in 2017. It has become not just a game, but a major part of gaming and internet culture.
Clix, whose real name is Cody Conrod, is an American professional esports player, streamer, and content creator best known for playing Fortnite. Clix became widely known in the Fortnite community after competing in events like the Fortnite World Cup in 2019, where he was one of the youngest and most skilled players. On YouTube Clix now has 3.5 million+ followers.
What you may not know, whether you play Fortnite or not, is that his videos are edited and managed by Ross McLaren, aged 22, here in Midlothian. He is Clix’s YouTube manager.
When Ross was still at school he was experimenting with making Minecraft videos then he progressed to gameplay videos for Fortnite. At the time he met Bugha, who then was a relatively unknown but very talented and upcoming Fortnite player. Ross started making Fortnite videos for Bugha and then their popularity just exploded. Bugha went from just over 10,000 YouTube followers to multi-million.
Ross then said to his parents that he didn’t want to stay at school to do his Advanced Highers in S6 followed by university but instead he wanted to create video content full time. Like a young Bill Gates had done 30 years previously, Ross spotted that he had to act now and start his business rather than following an academic route and then starting. His parents, Craig and Lesley, backed Ross and put their faith in him to succeed and that is exactly what he has done.
Multi-talented Ross now manages a creative team of 20 who produce content for multiple esports players. He has also worked with the Sidemen, a British YouTube collective whos founding member is KSI, and who have 22 million followers.
YouTube plaques are awarded to content creators who hit certain milestones and to receive one for a million subscribers is quite rare. Ross already has 1 one million plaque and 4 100k plaques, he is waiting to receive another 1 million plaque and 2 more 100k plaques.
Humble but very capable Ross said
“It is just crazy how things have turned out. I have worked with some of the top esports players in the world. It is great to work with them and the team around them.”
Fortnite players and content creators overtime have now converged to live, work and play in Dallas, Texas and so Ross time shifts his day to match their time zone. He wakes at 3 in the afternoon and works till the early hours UK time.
As an indication of how competitive esports has become and the fine margins involved, Fortnite players choose Dallas to be closer to the Fortnite servers which gives them a microseconds advantage over the competition.
Ross is now looking to make a move to Dallas himself. Ever forward thinking he can see the opportunities that such a move would make to his career and his business.
And Ross has done all of this whilst being wheelchair bound from birth. He has never let his disability stop him, whether that is playing the bagpipes at Murrayfield or creating world beating content he has always been determined to succeed.
Photo credit: Kostyantyn Chernichkin.
Saturday 3rd May marks World Press Freedom Day. Now in its 32nd year, the international day is more important than ever as media comes under attack across the globe.
This year the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) asked Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent, to share her reflections on the importance of local journalism during turbulent (to say the least) times in her home country of Ukraine.
Written by Olga Rudenko
KYIV, Ukraine — When I started in journalism some 15 years ago, I soon learned one thing: apparently, I jumped on a ship that was going down.
At least, that’s what so many people around me seemed to believe. The writing was on the wall: journalism was dying. Social media was taking over, bloggers were taking over, YouTube was taking over and politicians, talking directly to the public on Twitter, were taking over. New platforms were lining up to tear down that obsolete concept — journalists. And among those, local journalists were going down first.
Well, I thought, that’s unfortunate — especially since I just started working in a newspaper, and I quite liked it.
Here’s what happened next. My country, Ukraine, faced a number of turbulent events in close succession. It started with a revolution – the EuroMaidan protests of 2013-2014, that ousted a corrupt pro-Russian government – followed by the initial Russian invasion and occupation of Crimea. Later came a full-scale invasion, which is still ongoing.
Every sharp turn and every crisis — be it a revolution, a pandemic, or a war — made the public turn to the press for answers. In those situations, when information was a matter of life or death, people chose reliable, independent media to tell them the truth about the developments around them.
Every crisis saw the appearance of new media outlets, with more young people motivated to carry out the mission of journalism: keeping the people informed, while keeping the power accountable.
The newspaper I lead today, the Kyiv Independent, had a similar origin story, it was born out of a unique crisis. At the end of 2021, tensions were building at the newspaper I worked at, Kyiv Post. The owner wanted tighter control over the editorial output and the editorial team wouldn’t have it. His response was to fire the entire team and re-launch the newspaper with a more obedient staff.
Fortunately for us, the fired journalists, we quite liked doing independent journalism and didn’t want to go down without a good fight — and what is a better way to fight than start your own publication? We were lucky to be naive enough to do it with almost no funding.
We launched the Kyiv Independent just three months before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Three years later, we are an award-winning newsroom, staffed with a mix of Ukrainians and foreigners. We have established ourselves as the reliable source of on-the-ground news from Ukraine. We never planned to be a war newsroom, but we were forced to become one and had to learn on the go.
To put it mildly, we weren’t always destined for success. Early into the war, someone asked me: why do you need a local English-language newspaper like that, when Ukraine is already covered by some of the world’s best journalists?
That was true — correspondents from every country were flocking to Ukraine to report on Europe’s largest war in nearly a century. And they indeed were the best of the best. We were a motley crew of 20- and 30-year-olds, often with English as our second language and with miniscule resources compared to our global competitors. What were our chances?
That’s far from a unique question. This challenge — facing a competitor who’s dwarfing your resources — is familiar for thousands of local newsrooms globally. In the world of rapidly shrinking revenues and changing audience habits, local media are endangered everywhere. Media face the pressure to “reinvent or die” — and it’s local outlets, with their smaller resources, that are hit the hardest.
And yet maybe our story can give them some much-needed hope.
For three years, the Kyiv Independent has been not just surviving — but growing. One key reason for our success is the same as what some would identify as our key weakness — we are local.
Our readers recognize the value in local journalism with its boots on the ground and authors who know the place they are writing about by heart. We can bring them closer to the real story in the ways that a beautiful interactive feature produced by a big expensive team in a media giant won’t. And our readers really, truly feel that. They tell us so.
Moreover, they back their words with real support. The Kyiv Independent is funded by our readers — that’s what allows us to stay independent. As of now, over 17,000 members have joined us and pledged monthly donations, most of them just $5.
If the readers who follow Ukraine see so much value in local reporting that they show up for it like that, then the importance of local journalism is far from being forgotten.
It gives me hope that despite the unfavourable trends and ever-changing challenges, local reporting — the basis of all journalism — will be standing strong for many years to come.
But ultimately it depends on you — the reader.
Olga Rudenko is the editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent, a Ukrainian English-language online newspaper. It is a reader-funded publication — their work can be supported here.
Painters working on Forth Railway Bridge, 1 February 1961.
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Luke Jackson
‘Smoke and Steel: the History of Scotland’s Railways’ is a brand-new exhibition opening tomorrow at Stirling Castle.
Railways have helped to shape Scotland’s history and the nation today, with 2025 marking the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. Using material from Historic Environment Scotland’s archives and as part of Railway 200, the exhibition explores the history and impact of this groundbreaking means of transport.
Visitors can discover more about the railway’s construction, architecture and the connections they created, as well as their impact on industry and leisure.
Claire Whitbread, Exhibitions Manager at Historic Environment Scotland, said:
“The railway is a fascinating part of our heritage that has shaped Scotland’s landscape and continues to have an impact on how we live, forming connections across the nation and ushering in a new age of transport.
“We’re thrilled to be commemorating the 200th anniversary of the railway with this brand-new exhibition that charts the challenges faced in Scotland, celebrates those who built it and explores the rise, decline and renewal of Scotland’s railways”
‘Smoke and Steel: the History of Scotland’s Railways’ is on at Stirling Castle from Saturday 26 April 2025 to Sunday 7 September 2025. Entry to the exhibition is included with admission to the site. Tickets can be booked in advance. Entry is free for Historic Scotland members.
For more information and to book tickets, visit historicenvironment.scot/whats-on.
