JOURNALISTS and technicians at the BBC are planning to go on strike on the opening day of the Commonwealth Games – reports the BBC (here), The Scotsman (here – front page splash and page 7) and several other media outlets.
A 12-hour strike by members of the NUJ, BECTU and Unite trade unions is set to begin at midday on Wednesday.
Says the National Union of Journalists, the strike is because of a “fight for a decent pay rise”. The union adds: “A work-to-rule will start from midnight Thursday 24 July, coupled with an appraisals boycott.”
Says BECTU: “The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games is to be hit by the first strike in this year’s industrial dispute with the BBC over pay, BECTU has announced.
“The ceremony, which takes place in Glasgow on Wednesday 23 July, will be affected by action from midday to midnight by members of BECTU, the NUJ and Unite. News production for the event will be impacted, as will newsgathering and other programme production across radio and TV elsewhere across the UK.”
The Games’ opening ceremony takes place on Wednesday evening.
When the news broke, yesterday, allmediascotland tweeted the BBC’s report of it, on allmedianews.
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REPORTS the website, C21 Media: “Zodiak Media-owned Scottish production outfit, IWC Media, has brought back former exec, Paul Murray, as head of formats to lead its ambitious plans for the genre.
“Murray is leaving DCD-owned prodco Matchlight, where he was creative director, after just ten months.
“Murray started his production career at IWC, working on the original pilot and first season of hit Channel 4 property series Location, Location, Location.”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS the website, radiotoday.co.uk: “The cancelled Guardian podcast, MediaTalk, will continue for another year thanks to a [crowdfunding] KickStarter campaign to raise £9k to keep it going independently.
“The project attracted 244 backers who took the total to £9,093 over the weekend, meaning producer, Matt Hill, and his team can continue to make the audio. ‘We’ve been working hard to find a sponsor to push us over the edge, and this morning it happened. So, from next week, we’re on for a year,’ tweeted @themediapodcast.”
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IT’S not just Matthew Ball who has joined magazines outfit, Think – as headlined in today’s Media Movers feature. It’s Kathleen Morgan too.
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GLASGOW-based The Digger magazine is looking for a news reporter to work for two weeks during September, as advertised here on the allmediascotland.com media jobs board and repeated here, on twitter.com/allmediajobs.
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FURTHER to yesterday’s news, about the death of the former BBC Scotland presenter, John Milne, The Scotsman and The Herald newspapers each run lengthy obituaries, the latter penned by former head of news and current affairs at BBC Scotlland, Atholl Duncan.
Milne’s funeral is understood to be taking place on Tuesday, 1445, at Dundee Crematorium.
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