ONE of the country’s top rugby union writers is joining the Scotland edition of The Times.
Alasdair Reid will be writing rugby and golf for The Times, which recently appointed Michael Grant, from The Herald, as its Scottish football correspondent.
Reid has written for The Herald for the last ten years, including a weekly sports column, published on a Wednesday. He also writes for The Daily Telegraph.
Prior to joining The Herald, he was golf correspondent for The Sunday Times.
It is expected he will be joining The Times some time early next month.
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BEGINS Roy Greenslade, in The Guardian: “I regularly refer to ‘the national press’, meaning ‘the British press’. But it is not an appropriate description because several of the London-based newspapers, despite their unionist politics, treat Scotland as a nation apart.
“Principles take second place to profit. What counts more each side of the border is the maximisation of sales.
“So the Daily Mail edited in London runs a front page today calling the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, the ‘most dangerous woman in Britain’ following her performance in the televised leaders’ debate.
“But the Mail, despite its antipathy towards the SNP (and much vaunted advocacy of press freedom), didn’t feel confident enough to go with that in Scotland. Instead, the front page headline of the paper edited in Glasgow says: ‘Nicola: I want Tories to win’.”
Read more, here.
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THE Scots editor of the Spectator magazine, Fraser Nelson, has condemned what he calls ‘the hounding of the BBC’s James Cook’, following an interview the BBC News Scotland correspondent had on Saturday with First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, about claims – denied by the FM – that her preference might be for David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Nelson writes: “BBC Scotland’s James Cook caught up with Nicola Sturgeon today and asked her about the Telegraph‘s leaked memo [where the claims were first aired in the media]. But he also told her that the story chimes with what he has been told by senior SNP figures – that it suits their wider purpose to have a Tory Prime Minister because it rallies support for independence. His asking this question infuriated the CyberNats who rounded on him.”
At the weekend, Cook tweeted: “What an extraordinary level of vicious abuse I have received today for simply reporting the news. Is this the country we want folks? Is it?”
Several Scots journalists then tweeted their support of Cook.
And The Herald’s Iain Macwhirter writes extensively about the whole affair, today, here.
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A TRAINEE feature writer is being sought by The Press and Journal newspaper – as advertised here on the allmediascotland.com media jobs board, and repeated on the twitter feed, allmediajobs.
And an assistant to the head of photographic is also being sought at the P&J, as advertised here.
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AS noted last week on allmediascotland.com, it was a selection of names being reported – leaving The Scotsman and The Herald.
As so it was no surprise that the next day saw the reporting of the departure of Calum Macdonald, from The Herald.
And here’s another name: taking voluntary redundancy from The Scotsman last week was David Robinson, its literary editor for the last 15 years, who joined the newspaper in 1986. He will continue working as a freelance and can be contacted here.
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BEGINS Magnus Gardham, in The Herald: “[First Minister] Nicola Sturgeon has defended the media’s right to operate free from political interference.
“Ms Sturgeon’s remarks came after her predecessor, Alex Salmond, was accused of pressuring the BBC in the run-up to the election.
“The First Minister backed comments by the former director general of the BBC, Greg Dyke, who said politicians should not be allowed to define impartiality in reporting.”
Read more, here.
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THE blog of the Scots division of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations outlines the chronology for its awards competition this year, which culminates on October 8, and is accepting entries from now.
Read more, here.
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AS noted in a media release posted here, on allmediascotland.com, Robin MacPherson – a co-founder of Screen Academy Scotland and director of the Institute for Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University – has been named Chair of Creative Industries at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
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SAYS the standfirst to an essay on the website of The Drum media and marketing magazine: “John Denholm, co-founder of The Leith Agency and managing director of [Edinburgh-based] recruitment firm, Denholm Associates, discusses the derth of digital marketing talent working agency-side in the UK, outside of London.”
Read the essay here.
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AN upbeat prognosis of the newspaper industry, the former editor of The Scotsman, Mike Gilson, is quoted as he reportedly plans a re-design at The Argus, where he was recently appointed editor.
Read more, here.
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A FORMER chief reporter at the Daily Record is the subject of a Face-to-Face interview in The Herald.
Now a novelist, Anna Smith featured in yesterday’s edition of the paper, speaking partly about her latest book, A Cold Killing.
Read more, here, not least for her account of being sacked from her first reporter’s job.
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BEGINS a media release posted by Beattie Communications on allmediascotland.com: “Beattie Communications is expanding its content creation division with the formation of a new digital design team in Scotland.”
Read more, here.
And if you are a media organisation seeking to enhance your profile among your peers, then the allmediascotland media audience – accessible via here – might be worth considering…
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SEEN anything you think readers of www.allmediascotland.com should be made aware of? Then just send the weblink to here and we’ll do the rest. All suggestions gratefully received. We’re back at noon tomorrow.
