Whitton's time at Scottish Television was followed by a short period as a Director of the PR company, Media House. David Whitton is married and has two children and two grandchildren. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists.
He worked at The Scotsman in Glasgow for three years then moved to the Daily Record where he became Industrial Editor in 1983. From 1986–96, Whitton worked at Scottish Television in a variety of roles including producer of news and current affairs programmes, Lobby Correspondent at Westminster, presenter of political programming and on screen news reporter. He was Head of Public Affairs from 1994–96.