THE Evening Times senior reporter, Caroline Wilson, is today to receive an award on behalf of one her paper’s campaigns.
She is to be named Campaigner of the Year by the British Heart Foundation Scotland for her work on the Evening Times’ Opt for Life campaign.
The campaign aims to save lives by changing the current opt-in transplant system to an opt-out one.
A petition calling for the change has gathered more than 20,000 signatures.
Caroline will be presented with the award at the BHF annual supporters conference.
Read more, here.
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MEANWHILE, there have been a couple staff developments at the paper.
From The Courier, Peter Swindon has joined the Evening Times as group investigations reporter. He effectively succeeds David Leask, now the chief reporter at sister title, The Herald.
Swindon held a similar role at The Courier which was nominated for the Journalism Team prize at the Scottish Press Awards, earlier this year.
And Rebecca Gray has been appointed crime reporter, having previously been a general reporter.
And just begun in post is recent former Daily Record reporter, Janice Burns, now the Evening Times’ chief reporter.
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THE Daily Record and Sunday Mail newspapers are to report for their print, digital and electronic editions from the one newsroom.
Says the papers’ publisher, in a media announcement, here, its new ‘Audience First’ newsroom is a “merger of print and digital into a single team which delivers content where and when readers want it”.
Adds the announcement: “A new digital workflow will be introduced to ensure more breaking stories appear first on Scotland’s biggest news website, dailyrecord.co.uk.
“In tandem, writers and photographers are being hired to generate more unique content for the Record and Sunday Mail, Scotland’s best-read newspapers.
“Audience First is being rolled out initially at the Record and Mail, and will reach the Paisley Daily Express and [publisher] Media Scotland’s weekly titles later this year.
“As part of the transformation, staff are embarking on extensive digital training programmes ranging from SEO to social media.”
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WIDELY reported, including the front page of today’s Scotsman: political journalist-turned-government special adviser, Campbell Gunn, has apologised for any “upset and offence” caused by mis-representing a woman who spoke at a Better Together meeting on Monday.
Reported The Daily Telegraph yesterday, Gunn – a former political editor at The Sunday Post – had questioned how legitimate the woman was in describing herself a ‘normal’ person at the meeting.
The woman is reported to have also been on the receiving end of online abuse from so-called ‘Cybernats’, which might be why she is understood to have rejected the apology and – says both The Herald and The Scotsman – why First Minister, Alex Salmond, might be under pressure to dispense with his aide.
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SOME very well-known names were last night among the recipients of awards celebrating the best of Scotland’s television industry.
The first-ever Scotland Programme Awards run by the Royal Television Society crowned, among others, Peter Capaldi, Mark Daly, STV News and BBC Two.
Read more, here, in the Media Awards section of allmediascotland.com.
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REPORT education? Interested in it? Then you might be interested in our new twitter.com/allEducationPR.
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A COMMUNICATIONS officer is being sought by National Museums Scotland, as advertised here on the allmediascotland.com media jobs board and repeated on twitter.com/allmediajobs.
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THE wrong script is understood to have been the reason why a weather presenter abandoned the set at BBC Scotland yesterday morning before completing her forecast.
Tweeted Kawser Quamer, following the incident early yesterday: “Oh God! Wrong bit clipped for the weather at 7.30! Wasn’t really throwing a hissy fit – honest! Am LIVE in few mins – promise to be there!!!”
The story leads page three in today’s Herald, here.
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BEGINS a media announcement: “Next week, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is set to launch a television advertising campaign across Scotland and the north of England featuring the music of legendary singer-songwriter, Mark Knopfler.
“The TV commercial, inspired to support the sale of this summer’s 65th Edinburgh Tattoo (1-23 August), reveals a series of fast-moving clips from the hugely popular annual Castle Esplanade production set against the almost instantly recognisable strains of Going Home, the theme tune from the timeless 1983 film, ‘Local Hero’.”
The story is picked up by, among others, the Edinburgh Evening News, here.
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THE Scottish Sun has been named among the winners of an awards competition celebrating the best of online media.
The paper last night took the title, Best Brand Development, at the Online Media Awards, run by the Glasgow-based media and marketing magazine, The Drum.
For more details, visit our Media Awards feature, tomorrow.
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A POLL of small businesses in Scotland and their views of the Scots independence debate has found that 15 per cent of owners have sought out referendum information by getting in touch with a political party, while the main sources of information on the topic were television (74 per cent), newspapers (73 per cent), media websites (56 per cent) and radio (51 per cent).
The poll was conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses. Read more, here.
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