BEGINS the BBC website: “BBC Radio Scotland’s schedule is to change next year to bring more news, debate, comedy and a new weekly music show.
“Kaye Adams is to host a new daily three-hour news and current affairs programme, replacing Morning Call and MacAulay & Co.
“Starting in March, it will include debates, interviews and phone-ins.
“Fred MacAulay will continue to work for the station on a series of comedy programmes.
“They include Breaking The News, a new weekly satirical panel show with comedians and journalists recorded in front of a live audience.
“Elsewhere, Good Morning Scotland will be broadcast on Sundays and Newsdrive will be extended by 30 minutes every weekday.”
Read more, here.
Lots of the newspaper coverage, today, of the story – such as here, in the Daily Record – lead with the axing of Fred MacAulay’s show.
But there’s emphasis too on the reasoning behind the changes: to include more news, current affairs and serious debate on the station.
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BEGINS pressgazette.co.uk: “Long-serving BBC foreign correspondent, [Scot] Allan Little is leaving the Corporation at the end of the year to ‘to pursue other projects’.
“No other reason has been given for his departure. It comes at a time when the BBC is cutting some 415 jobs from BBC News via voluntary redundancy.
“The first exits are due to happen at the end of this year.
“BBC head of newsgathering described Little as an ‘iconic’ reporter who as set the benchmark for ‘intelligent, unforgettable reportage’…”
Read more, here.
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BEGINS The Guardian: “Younger people are switching off TV and radio in their droves in favour of online pursuits such as Facebook, leading to a growing “generation gap” in TV and radio.
“A report by media regulator Ofcom published on Monday said 16-to-24 year-olds spent an average of 148 minutes a day watching TV in 2013, down from 169 minutes in 2010 and compared to an average of 232 minutes for all viewers.”
Read more, here.
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FORMER BBC Scotland sound engineer, Ian Cowie, is well known among his many friends as ‘Snax’, because of his love of food, particularly curry.
And a trip to India had him being the subject of a story in Calcutta newspaper, The Telegraph, which began its report, thus: “Ian Cowie is a half-English, half-Scottish gent who loves to hold a naan in one hand, dunk the other in a bowl of spicy curry and go ‘Mmmmm…’, like a roving gastronome would do on a travel show.
“Nothing unusual about a Briton loving his rogan josh, except that curry is a culinary obsession for Ian matched only by his desire to travel the world and eat.
“’Scottish Curry Lover of the Year 2008′ is a crown the Edinburgh resident, pushing 60 and nicknamed Mr Snax, wears proudly.”
Ian and brother, Duncan, have been visiting Calcutta to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their grandfather doing likewise.
Read more, here.
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NEWS noted yesterday – here on allmediascotland.com – that the Edinburgh International Film Festival has appointed a journalist, Mark Adams, as its artistic director, receives significant coverage in today’s Scotsman – here, by arts correspondent, Brian Ferguson, and by Alistair Harkness, the paper’s film critic (page 15).
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CONGRATULATIONS to Roisin McGroarty, editor of the Irvine Times, who, on the first of next month, adds the editorship the Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald to her portfolio. She is a former news editor at the Ayr Advertiser.
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BEGINS an announcement issued by PR agency, W Communications: “Johnston Press [publisher of The Scotsman and several other Scots newspaper titles], one of the UK’s largest local multimedia companies, has appointed award-winning agency, W, to support its position as the number one provider of local news and information services, and showcase the breadth and depth of its local expertise during an exciting period of transition for the business.”
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