BEGINS an announcement from broadcasters, STV: “STV has been awarded the licences to deliver local TV services to Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee.
These three new services will be delivered in partnership with Robert Gordon University and North East Scotland College in Aberdeen, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) in Ayr, and Abertay University and Dundee and Angus College in Dundee.
“Working in partnership with the further education colleges and universities will provide media students with the opportunity to learn and train in a live TV environment.
“STV’s licences for Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee will deliver local news and current affairs content.”
Read more, here. And here too, on the website of broadcasting regulators, Ofcom.
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THE Scots comedian, Billy Connolly, has been named a winner at an awards ceremony celebrity the best TV programmes broadcast in the UK.
He was the recipient of the presenter prize at the Programme Awards 2013-14, run by the Royal Television Society.
Elsewhere, Hazel Irvine was a nominee in the Sports Presenter, Commentator or Pundit category, while The Girl Who Talked To Dolphins (BBC Scotland Science Productions for BBC Four) was a nominee too, this time in the Science and Natural History category.
Read more, here.
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BEGINS Gareth Mackie, in today’s Scotsman: “Blipfoto, the Edinburgh-based photo sharing website that collapsed into liquidation with all jobs lost, is set to be acquired by a group of Polaroid investors by the end of this week.
“Glasgow-based intellectual property specialist Metis Partners was instructed by Tom MacLennan of FRP Advisory, provisional liquidator of Blipfoto, to handle the sale of the ‘technological expertise and intellectual property’ behind the site, including the treasured photo journals of its millions of users.”
Read more, here. And here too, on the BBC website.
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THE Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (PIRC) is currently recruiting for an experienced communications manager to join her team in Hamilton – as advertised here on allmediascotland.com.
And repeated on the dedicated media jobs twitter feed, allmediajobs.
Please do mention allmediascotland when replying to job adverts you see on the site.
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NICE read by Iain Macwhirter, in today’s Herald, about social media, in particular about First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, replying directly to him, and with a certain wit.
He writes: “And I’m certainly not the only journalist who receives her attentions. Many do. One colleague asked Twitter whether the SNP had dropped its ‘red line’ on Trident renewal in any coalition negotiations. “No” came the emphatic reply from @NicolaSturgeon.
“This says a lot about the First Minister’s bottle and is one reason she is highly regarded even by journalists who dislike what she stands for. It takes extraordinary self-confidence for a politician to handle their own social media.”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS The Guardian: “The [UK] government is to launch a consultation on whether to offer tax breaks to the local newspaper industry – but only for titles in England.
“‘Local newspapers are a vital part of community life – but they’ve had a tough time in recent years – so today we announce a consultation on how we can provide them with tax support too,’ said the Chancellor, George Osborne, delivering the Budget [yesterday].”
Later, reporters, Mark Sweney and Tara Conlan, write: “The consultation will not apply to titles based in Wales and Scotland because powers relating to business rate breaks are devolved.
“There are 160 local newspapers in Scotland, and almost 60 in Wales, that are officially audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. There may be more that do not pay to have their circulation officially audited.”
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