THE political correspondent at The Scotsman is leaving, to join the Daily Express.
David Maddox starts his new job on Monday, as a political reporter. He’s been with The Scotsman for almost eight years – the last five based at Westminster – and his job is currently being advertised.
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WRITES The Scotsman’s Martyn McLaughlin, towards the end of a column today: “…the accusation that journalists deliberately overlook tragedies in places like Beirut is a grave insult to those who routinely put themselves in harm’s way in order to give a voice to the besieged and the marginalised.
“What of the 71 journalists who were killed last year, not only in widely reported countries like Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, but the hinterlands of Burma, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo?
“What of the 700 who have perished over the past decade – one every five days – in the line of duty?
“The notion that these reporters and their colleagues turn a blind eye to global horrors is a convenient connivance on the part of those who are unable to face up to a more mundane truth: they are apathetic to distant tragedies unless they can be twisted so as to fit their own reductive narrative of grievance and sanctimony.”
Read more, here.
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A SPRINKLING of Scots journalists have made it into a top 50 list of novelists and their Twitter ranking.
Says the Scottish Book Trust – here: “Scotland’s 50 most influential novelists on Twitter have been identified by Scottish Book Trust, a national charity which inspires and support the people of Scotland to read and write for pleasure, in advance of Book Week Scotland 2015 (23-29 November).
“JK Rowling is Scotland’s most influential author on Twitter with a social authority ranking of 95 and almost six million followers. The Harry Potter author gains an average of 2,500 new followers every day.”
And joining Rowling on the list is chief features writer on The Scottish Sun, Matt Bendoris, who comes in at No.43, while STV’s John MacKay is at No.15.
Other familiar media names include Kirsty Wark, Andrew Marr and Neil Mackay.
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A HEAD of news is being sought by the Aberdeen-based commercial radio station, Original 106fm.
The vacancy is being showcased here, on the allmediascotland.com media jobs board.
Please do mention the site when replying to job ads you see on it.
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THE UK-wide PR agency, Citypress, has made two appointments to its Edinburgh office, including a comms specialist with the Scottish Government.
Says the agency: “Joe Walton, former secretary of the [Chartered Institute of Public Relations] Scotland committee, has been appointed as senior account manager. He joins Citypress Scotland from the Scottish Government where he managed the Culture, Europe and External Affairs portfolio for the communications department.”
And it adds that it has has also appointed Ross Stebbing, named ‘Outstanding Young Communicator’ at this year’s PRide Awards run by the Scots division of the CIPR.
Says Citypress: “He joins as account executive from the Holyrood Partnership where he worked across a range of consumer, healthcare, business and property accounts.”
The Citypress Edinburgh team is now seven-strong.
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SOME numbers from our various Twitter feeds – which can be all found here.
For example, twitter.com/allSportsPR: 336, twitter.com/allEdinburghPR: 82, twitter.com/allFoodPR: 659, twitter.com/allmedianews: 16,300 and twitter.com/allmediajobs: 1,404.
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BEGINS the BBC this morning – and already being widely reported: “The BBC is today setting out details of how we plan to save £150 million to address a shortfall in funding identified earlier this year.
“The shortfall has arisen because as more people use BBC iPlayer, mobiles and other online catch-up, the proportion of households owning a television is falling, while a loophole allows viewers to watch catch-up TV without a licence.”
Among the proposed savings: £35m from the sports rights budget.
Read more, here.
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