A LIFE Membership to the National Union of Journalists is being awarded later this month to one of the best-known names in Scottish journalism.
The Edinburgh & District branch of the NUJ is to confer the honour on Jim Dow, who started out in journalism 52 years ago and is perhaps best known for his days at The Scotsman newspaper, where we worked for 23 years, including as a reporter, assistant news editor and, for the last nine years, as business editor.
But it was in Dar es Salaam, with The Tanganyika Standard, where Jim first began as a journalist. Then, it was on to the Galloway Gazette in Newton Stewart, the Fifeshire Advertiser in Kirkcaldy, the East African Standard in Nairobi, and the Cambridge Evening News, before The Scotsman beckoned.
In 1989, he left The Scotsman to join the world of PR and freelance journalism, which he continues to ply his trade, partly as co-founder, in September, of a Scottish commercial property website newspaper
He has been in the NUJ since 1957, has found the time to write a book on the Scottish islands and is in the process of writing another book, this time on Africa. He says that, at the age of 69, he is busier than ever.
The award ceremony is taking place on Monday.
