THE recent exit of Tom Gallagher as editor of The Daily Telegraph has prompted a former Scotsman editor to speculate that it might signal the end of the ‘newspaper editor’ as we know it.
Writes John McGurk, also a former editor of Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News: “Editors have come under the heel of new-wave digital gurus with visions of a digital future and who talk a digital language only they fully understand.”
Adds McGurk, in a column for the website, www.scot-buzz.co.uk (run by well-known Scots business writer, Bill Jamieson): “Gallagher, a highly-successful editor who was no digital alien, has been replaced by a new system rather than a new editor.”
McGurk is also a former managing editor of The Daily Telegraph.
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IT’S the Daily Record closely followed by The Scotsman and the Edinburgh Evening News – check out an infographic comprising the number of twitter followers of various newspapers and, in some cases, their individual sections.
It’s been produced here by well-known media commentator, Shaun Milne, editor (digital publishing) at STV.
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THE Herald newspaper today tells of its role in creating what is now golf’s Ryder Cup and how a medal from the inaugural event at Gleneagles has just been unearthed.
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APPLICATIONS are being sought from the Scots media to attend a breakfast workshop in Edinburgh next month, to find out more about the French Tourism Development Agency, Atout France, including how to attend Press trips.
For more information, click here.
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FREELANCE members of the National Union of Journalists are being asked to (anonymously) share their views on their income, their career and their well-being in a third survey of its type.
The NUJ freelance well-being survey was previously staged in 2004 and also four years ago.
The survey ends on the 14th of next month.
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A SCOTS cycling advert has been banned from being shown in its present form because it has been deemed to have breached ‘social responsibility’ rules.
Says the Advertising Standards Authority, while people are not required, by law, to wear a helmet when cycling, the advert – on behalf of the cycling promotion body, Cycling Scotland, and showing someone cycling while not wearing a helmet – should not be broadcast again “in its current form”.
The story leads page three of today’s Herald newspaper.
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A MOVE by the publisher of The Scotsman and several Scots local newspapers – to have its photography is Scotland primarily provided by freelancers rather than staffers – has been criticised by the general-secretary of the National Union of Journalists.
The plans by Johnston Press – reported on allmediascotland in November – also include other parts of the UK.
Michelle Stanistreet is quoted on the NUJ website describing the proposed move as ‘dangerous’.
The Guardian’s media commentator, Roy Greenslade, considers the plans, here.
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A NEW-style website for The People newspaper has been reportedly closed, after just three months.
Says the website, pressgazette, the closure ‘of the Buzzfeed-style’ site sees the departure of Sue Douglas, among others. It credits the site as the ‘brainchild’ of Douglas, a former editor of the Sunday Express.
Several years ago, in the capacity of ‘executive editor’, Douglas helped relaunch Scotsman Publications, with then publisher, Andrew Neil – her departure in 2001 reported here in The Guardian.
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FORMER Doctor Who, Matt Smith, has reportedly been signed up to voice the first national TV advertising campaign for the Scots company, travel search engine, Skyscanner.
Says The Drum, the campaign is “part of a wider multi-million pound round of integrated activity”.
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