THE managing director of the Scots division of newspaper publishers, Johnston Press – Helen Oldham – has been given a new role within the company, as it effectively dispenses with a regional structure.
It follows what the company is describing as “far-reaching organisational changes to hasten the company’s ongoing strategy of growing engaged audiences and achieving total revenue growth”.
Oldham – who was, until yesterday, also MD of the Yorkshire division of the publishers of The Scotsman and various other Scots titles – has been named one of two group publishing directors.
Says Johnston Press, the changes include “five regional MD roles have been removed to fast-track decision-making”.
Also among the changes: “[An] editor-in-chief has been appointed to drive a co-ordinated editorial strategy across the portfolio by championing innovation and best practice.”
Read more, here.
Among those reporting the restructuring is The Guardian, here.
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STUDENTS from the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde have been named winners at student media awards run by The Guardian newspaper.
At the 2015 Guardian Student Media Awards, the Student Website of the Year title went to the-gist.org (Glasgow Insight into Science and Technology), run by students at Glasgow.
Meanwhile, Timothy Revell, from the University of Strathclyde, took the category title, Student Feature Writer of the Year.
Read more, here.
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WIDELY reported, including by Holyrood magazine’s Alan Robertson: “Justice Secretary, Michael Matheson, and Scotland’s most senior police officer will be called to appear before MSPs over Police Scotland’s breach of spying rules to identify journalists’ sources.
“Holyrood’s Justice Committee [yesterday] morning agreed to hold a one-off evidence session in two weeks’ time after ‘serious questions’ were raised by the official surveillance watchdog.”
Read more, here. And here (Daily Record), here (The Scotsman) and here (The Herald).
And The Scotsman’s Chris Marshall considers the subject in the paper’s Inside Justice column, here.
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BEGINS an announcement about Edinburgh-based comms agency, Story UK: it has been chosen by Edinburgh Leisure to help “prompt brand re-appraisal and to re-position the health, sport and physical activity provider in Edinburgh”.
Continues the appointment: “After a four-way pitch, Story was selected as the lead agency to support Edinburgh Leisure and to help them attract new customers and highlight the choice and range of activities for all Edinburgh residents across its city venues.
“The primary audience was identified as the family market, who lead busy lives, with children across the age spectrum.”
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AND begins a Scottish Government announcement: “Spending more of the BBC licence fee raised in Scotland on indigenous TV production could deliver a major boost to the Scottish economy, Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, said today.
“Speaking at a Charter renewal consultation event she was hosting in Edinburgh [this morning], Ms Hyslop expanded on her vision for the BBC to operate under a federal structure and outlined how re-aligning current spending would strengthen the country’s creative industries and wider economy.”
Read more, here.
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