Your Noon Briefing: Aye Write!, Edinburgh advertising campaign, Tam Cowan, etc

SEVERAL very well-kent Scots media folk grace the programme of an upcoming book festival, taking place in Glasgow during April.

The Aye Write! festival programme features the likes of Sally Magnusson, Allan Brown, James Naughtie, Lesley Riddoch, Vic Galloway, Allan Massie, Trevor Royle and Kirsty Wark.

The festival is being staged between April 4 and 12. For more details, click here.

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IF the voice sounded familiar, from the opening and closing ceremonies at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, then it was probably because it was: Scots voiceover artist, broadcaster and musician, John Cavanagh.

Find out more, here.

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THE reason why BBC ALBA delayed the transmission of a football match between Ross County and St Mirren, at the weekend?

Because of the amount of swearing that could be heard from fans.

Reports the BBC: “Ross County’s match with St Mirren was supposed to have been broadcast “as live” by BBC Alba at 17:30 on Saturday.

“But the transmission was delayed until 22:55 [until after the ‘watershed’].

“The channel had been concerned the amount of bad language would have breached [broadcasting regulator] Ofcom guidelines.”

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EDINBURGH has reportedly unveiled its biggest-ever promotional campaign – to kick-start a revival of its city centre following years of disruption caused by the construction of its trams system.

Begins a report in Friday’s edition of the Edinburgh Evening News: “A new £1 million marketing campaign to draw people back to Edinburgh city centre was unveiled today, following the failed and widely criticised ‘Incredinburgh’ ad blitz.”

And Brian Ferguson, in sister title, The Scotsman, notes: “The £1 million initiative, which will run for the next two years under the banner of ‘This is Edinburgh’, will involve everything from TV advertising and billboard adverts to social media marathons.”

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NEWS reported on Friday – that the Daily Record columnist, Tam Cowan, was leaving – has been followed by speculation being confirmed by a tweet from the editor of The Scottish Sun.

Said allmediascotland.com of Cowan, who also co-presents the football show, Off the Ball, on BBC Radio Scotland: “It’s not known when exactly he’s leaving and it’s being speculated he might end up at rival, The Scottish Sun.”

Tweeted Gordon Smart on Saturday (and re-tweeted on twitter.com/allmedianews): “I’m delighted to announce Off The Ball hero TAM COWAN has joined @ScottishSun. Greeeetings Tam! Welcome to Scotland’s best selling newspaper.”

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THE organisation that has the licence for the .scot domain name has apparently been ‘swamped’ with applications from all over the world to use the suffix – even though it will not go live until the Summer (as reported here on allmediascotland last month).

Says The Herald: “The Glasgow-based not-for-profit outfit, Dot Scot Registry, paid over £300,000 for the licence.”

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THE Scotsman has gone up in price, from £1.20 to £1.30, weekdays, and from £1.60 to £1.70 on a Saturday.

Says editor, Ian Stewart, in the paper, the price rises are to “meet overheads such as the rising costs of paper and transportation and, most importantly, to further invest in our journalism”.

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THE deadline for applications for a vacancy at Glasgow Airport has been extended until the end of this week. Originally, applications for the post of communications and public affairs manager at the airport had to be submitted by last Friday.

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Writes The Guardian’s media pundit, Roy Greenslade: “Hunting for bias in BBC news reporting has long been a popular sport and yet another example arrives today in an article about the Scots referendum by John Robertson, on the open democracy website.”

The research by Robertson was featured here (on allmediascotland), to be followed by his response (see here) to concerns subsequently raised by BBC Scotland – which Greenslade, in a later article, notes here.

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THE Scotsman columnist, Jane Bradley, considers what we might be all doing, instead of watching almost four hours of TV every day… here.

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