FOLLOWING the sudden ending yesterday of the case against former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson – in the Edinburgh High Court – the papers go to town today.
Details of the collapse – which was noted in yesterday’s Noon Briefing on allmediascotland, here – makes the lead story on page one of both The Scotsman (here) and The Herald (here).
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ALL the resolutions presented at the annual general meeting of Johnston Press – publisher of The Scotsman and several other Scots newspapers – were yesterday comfortably passed.
The AGM, in Edinburgh, saw – among others – almost 100 per cent backing for chief executive, Ashley Highfield, continuing as a director.
Read more, here.
And The Herald’s Simon Bain begins his report (here) of the meeting, thus: “Ian Russell, chairman of Johnston Press, has defended last year’s £1.65m pay package for chief executive, Ashley Highfield, and said the firm’s staff have enjoyed a commensurate pay rise.
“The former ScottishPower chief told the annual meeting in Edinburgh that Mr Highfield’s 7.5 per cent salary rise was his first in three years and the group’s staff had in the same period received four pay rises.”
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THE Herald has announced what it describes as a ‘new obituaries service’.
Says the paper: “Now, we are launching a new service that will offer readers the opportunity of having a piece published about someone they know who has died recently.”
Details of the service appear on page 15 of today’s edition of The Herald.
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BEGINS The Drum media and marketing magazine: “Scotch whisky brand, Tamdhu, has revealed a redesign website following the relaunch of the brand two years ago.
“The mobile-responsive site was designed by [Glasgow and London-based] branding and design consultancy, Good, which also created the overall branding for Tamdhu at launch.”
Read more, here.
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AND begins Mark Smith, in today’s Herald: “The BBC has just announced some new arts coverage, but pull back the curtain a bit and you’ll see things aren’t as good as they might appear at first.”
He continues, in the paper’s Inside Track slot: “There may be a glittering headline act in town, with some star names such as Richard Wilson in the cast, but arts and culture at the BBC is in a very sorry state indeed.”
Read more, here.
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IT will not have escaped anyone’s attention – who watched the UK-wide BBC’s Six O’Clock News yesterday, or the Panorama programme later in the evening – that it is BBC Scotland’s investigations correspondent, Mark Daly, behind claims and denials of drugs misuse within athletics.
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REPORTS PRWeek: “Kent-based PR agency, Davies Tanner, has retained the VisitScotland business events account following a four-way competitive pitch.
“The agency has held the account since 2012, and the new brief is for three years.”
Read more, here.
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STARTS an announcement from STV: “ITV has commissioned STV Productions, with Group M Entertainment, to make a new ITV2 comedy panel show – Safeword.
“The series of seven, 45-minute episodes will air in July 2015 with host, Rick Edwards (Tool Academy) plus regular captains Katherine Ryan (Have I Got News For You , Mock the Week , 8 out of 10 Cats) and David Morgan (Sweat The Small Stuff , Virtually Famous and The Xtra Factor).”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS The Guardian (here): “Veteran broadcaster, [Scot] James Naughtie has apologised after referring to Caitlyn Jenner as ‘he’ during a discussion on Radio 4’s Today programme.
“The US celebrity formerly known as Bruce made her debut as a transgender woman called Caitlyn in Vanity Fair earlier this week.”
The Guardian later notes: “Naughtie later apologised, writing: ‘If Caitlyn Jenner wishes to be known as she, of course she’s entitled to that, and I’m sorry for saying “he” on air. A bit sloppy.'”
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NONE of the Scots contenders, shortlisted in various categories of the British Sports Book of the Year Awards (as noted, here, on allmediascotland), made it to the winners’ podium at the prize-giving ceremony last night.
To find out who did, click here.
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