BEGINS the chair of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ): “The good news is that journalists with NCTJ qualifications are getting jobs: the bad news is that the pay is poor.”
Continues Kim Fletcher: “When students who had studied on our accredited courses were asked what they were doing now, some 82 per cent said they were in work, compared with 70 per cent of leavers from higher education courses across all subjects. But their median salary was £17,500, some £3,000 less than the level for all graduates from higher education.”
He was responding to independent research, based on a survey of 205 individuals who studied for the NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism who were contacted within six-to-ten months of completing their course.”
Read more, here, on the website, holdthefrontpage.
And here, in the allmediascotland features slot, The Media in Figures.
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THE Scots producer of an award-winning documentary – which claimed that some work credited to JS Bach might have been written, instead, by his wife, Anna Magdalena – has a book being published later this week, about popular music.
Robert Beedham – who is a scriptwriter/producer at Glasgow Films, which made ‘Written by Mrs Bach’ – has penned a novel which poses a question based on the fact that several well-known names from the world of popular music have each died, aged 27.
‘Imagine’ asks if they might all be living together on an island.
‘Written by Mrs Bach‘ was first broadcast on BBC Four in March. The following month, it picked up a gold medal at the World’s Best TV & Film Awards, in New York.
‘Imagine’ is out on Thursday. For more information, click www.imaginebook.co.uk
Thursday is the anniversary of the death of singer, Amy Winehouse, aged 27.
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A RECENTLY-launched website set up by some of Scotland’s best-known journalists – to carry out investigative journalism – has passed its initial target in a crowdfunding campaign to finance its first piece of work.
Says The Ferret: “The Ferret is planning to publish its first story this week after exceeding its crowdfunding target and raising nearly £5,000 – with more than half of its fundraising campaign still to run.
“At time of writing, 144 people had backed Scotland’s first investigative platform and donated £4,946 with 22 days left of our crowdfunding venture on Indiegogo.
“The Ferret’s target was to raise £3,800 in order to fund a team of journalists to investigate fracking after the issue topped our public vote last month, taking 37 per cent of ballots cast.”
Read more, here.
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THE sports editor at one of Scotland’s best-known local newspapers is leaving, to go freelance.
Gordon Bannerman has been with the twice-weekly title, the Perthshire Advertiser, for 35 years.
He is leaving at the end of the month and expects to be freelancing mainly about local football club, St Johnstone.
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BEGINS the BBC, here: “The Scottish Professional Football League has agreed a deal to show live Scottish football on mainstream television in China for the first time.
“Thought to be worth about £500,000 a year for three years, the deal is with Letv Sports, China’s leading digital broadcast platform for sports.
“It will make 55 Premiership matches available across TV, online and mobile.”
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RECENT reports and debate about the future of the BBC includes an opinion piece by the editor of the website, Daily Business.
Terry Murden – a former business editor of The Scotsman – writes: “In fairness to an organisation that is as much a part of British life as the monarchy and country pubs, there is a need to defend it against some of the more ridiculous demands being made about the need for reform, most notably its essential Britishness.
“There is a lot of daft talk, for instance, about making BBC Scotland more Scottish and even creating a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation. This is driven in part by those misguided but influential individuals who continue to believe the BBC is biased against them.
“In turn, this has turned into nasty and personal criticism of professional journalists. It needs to be nipped in the bud and not be allowed to taint serious discussion of the Corporation’s future.
“The BBC succeeds because it embraces and reflects all aspects of the United Kingdom. This also gives it a scale that enables it to operate cost efficiently to share the talents of the family of nations whether in sport, drama or current affairs.”
Read more, here.
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