WELCOME to Media Movers, tracking promotions, retirements, etc among the Scottish media.
AND first, congratulations to Nicolai Gentchev, who has been appointed director of current affairs at Mentorn Media.
Gentchev, who has been at Mentorn Scotland for five-and-a-half years (as editor of Question Time, on the BBC), becomes executive producer of the political debate show as part of his new role which includes developing and executive producing a range of current affairs programmes.
During his time as editor of Question Time, he also edited BBC Scotland’s ‘Referendum Debates’ series in 2014 and has been executive producer on various one-off programmes, including the ‘Big, Big Debate’ at the Hydro, which was nominated for a BAFTA and won the RTS Scotland Award for Best Referendum Programme.
Gentchev succeeds Hayley Valentine who – says a Mentorn announcement – “has left Mentorn Media after three years to pursue other opportunities”.
Before joining Mentorn Media as editor of Question Time, Gentchev was editor of BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Good Morning Scotland’ morning news show.
Previous to that, he has been an output editor on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and before that worked for several years as a business reporter and producer for the BBC and Bloomberg News.
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AND congratulations too to Alan Roden, appointed communications director of the Scottish Labour Party.
He joins the Scottish Labour from the Scottish Daily Mail, where he has been political editor since 2012.
He first joined the newspaper in 2008 and – three years ago – was appointed secretary of the Scottish Parliamentary Journalists’ Association.
He was named as political journalist of the year at the Scottish Press Awards in 2012.
He previously worked for the Edinburgh Evening News, reporting on local politics, transport, health and the environment.
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ALAN’S successor as political editor of Scottish Daily Mail is Michael Blackley, who has been political editor at sister title, The Scottish Mail on Sunday, since 2013.
He was previously at the Scottish Daily Mail (as political reporter) and, before that, the Edinburgh Evening News as city council reporter and business editor.
His deputy is Rachel Watson who has worked as a general news reporter at the paper since 2014.
Gareth Rose is now political editor at The Scottish Mail on Sunday. These last two years, he has been Scottish political reporter at the Scottish Daily Mail, and previously worked at The Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News.
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