AN account director with a Glasgow-based PR agency has been elected chair of the Scotland branch of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Katrine Pearson, last year’s vice-chair, succeeds Laura Sutherland who has stepped down from her role after two years. Sutherland will continue to be involved with the CIPR as co-opted member of the CIPR board. Pearson, who works at 3×1, was elected at the branch’s annual general meeting on Tuesday evening.
Jenifer Stirton, a former chair and director of marketing and communications at the Student Loans Company re-joins the committee as vice-chair, while Fiona Wilson, head of news at the Scottish Government, takes over from Joe Walton as group secretary. Treasurer, Grant Thoms, remain in his role for a third term.
Joining the committee are Clare Smith, head of marketing at the Scottish Government; David Russell, communications manager at East Lothian Council; Glenise Borthwick, head of communications at the General Teaching Council of Scotland; Nathalie Agnew, director of Muckle Media and Susanne Cameron-Nielsen, head of External Relations (Scotland) at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
At the meeting, Ruth Fry and Matthew Pittam stood down as committee members while Kenny Macdonald, Andrew Watson and Sandra Steele continue into next year.
* * *
BBC broadcasters – including Scot, Kirsty Young – have reportedly given their support to a new scheme acting as mentors to 20 female presenters from across BBC Local Radio.
Says radiotoday.co.uk: “The new mentoring scheme [which will also include the likes of Jenni Murray and Victoria Derbyshire] was launched this week as a joint venture between Local Radio and the networking and development group, Sound Women, with support from the BBC’s Diversity Centre.”
* * *
EXPAT Scots are the main target audience for a new website launched by the publisher of the Daily Record, Media Scotland.
Scotland Now is designed to be “celebratory and inclusive… positively [reinforcing] the message that Scotland continues to exert a powerful influence around the world”.
Its editor is Katrina Tweedie.
An announcement from the Record’s publishers quotes Allan Rennie – managing director of Media Scotland, Trinity Mirror’s Scots division – as saying: “If ever there was a time to harness the energy of the diaspora it is now – when the eyes of the world are on Scotland.
“This is a dynamic development and shows the level of digital ambition we have within the business. Ultimately, our aim is to make the site the number one destination for Scots, and fans of Scotland, wherever they are in the world.”
* * *
WHAT’S the BBC for? That’s the question being asked by The Herald’s Mark Smith, in a preview of an upcoming four-part comedy, W1A, being broadcast by the Corporation about itself.
The show is from the makers of Twenty Twelve, a spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary about an organising committee of the London Olympic Games.
And Smith is not convinced, as he writes here.
* * *
A GROUP of comic book writers based in Glasgow has teamed up with the publishers of The Beano and other comics to ‘resurrect some classic characters’.
The Glasgow League of Writers is working with Dundee-based DC Thomson to “help bring back some of [its] classic characters as part of Comic Heroes’ digital magazine, Comic Review”.
Read more, here. And also find out more about the GLoW, here.
* * *
YESTERDAY, The Herald was reporting (as noted here on allmediascotland) that the PR firm, Media House International, had parted company with football club, Rangers, ‘by mutual consent’.
Today, it ran a correction, which read: “According to our story yesterday, businessman, Jack Irvine, who no longer has a public relations role with Rangers Football Club, continued to represent club directors and investors, Sandy and James Easdale. In fact, Mr Irvine ceased to represent the Easdales in August last year.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Ferrie, on the back page of The Herald’s sports supplement, today, muses on ‘spin doctors in sport’ – here.
* * *
THE Scots castle that’s being used as a location for a big-budget US sci-fi drama, Outlander, has been reportedly besieged by fans of the show.
Wrote Brian Ferguson, in The Scotsman, yesterday: “Doune Castle in Perthshire has been welcoming droves of American devotees of Outlander, the show dubbed Scotland’s answer to ‘Game of Thrones’, after it was chosen as the main outdoor location for the show, standing in for fictional Castle Leoch at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion.”
And also yesterday, The Herald’s Phil Miller penned notes from being on the set, here.
Meanwhile, a report by the BBC wonders when UK audiences will actually get to see the show.
* * *
JOHNSTON Press – publisher of The Scotsman and several other Scots newspapers – has reportedly cut its mileage expenses rate, and The Guardian’s media pundit, Roy Greenslade, believes it to be an unwise move.
A letter of protest about the cut – from 45p to 25p per mile – is said to have been sent by the National Union of Journalists to the Johnston Press chief exec, Ashley Highfield.
* * *
SEEN anything you think readers of www.allmediascotland.com should be made aware of? Then just send the weblink to info@allmediascotland.com and we’ll do the rest. All suggestions gratefully received. We’re back at noon tomorrow.
PS Your Noon Briefing is a relatively new venture for allmediascotland.com. We are no longer going to report news, story-by-story. Instead, we are going to find content we hope will be useful, in the belief it will prove to be a more comprehensive service.
