Your Noon Briefing: Michael Tierney, Daily Record to stream rugby match, etc

IN the early winter of 1983, former Herald writer, Michael Tierney, attended his first – and only – football match with his father, John.

Continues the blurb for Tierney’s first book: “For a self-employed electrician with nine children to support, this was the rarest of opportunities. Miraculously, Celtic overturned a first-leg deficit to thrash Sporting Lisbon, 5-0, with a team of home-grown talent, players that felt as one with the fans.

‘The First Game with My Father’ is an evocative family memoir and a journey of discovery into lives that diverge, yet are knitted together by moments of sorrow and joy, and into the nature of identity, especially when tragedy renders a man voiceless. The most intimate portrait of a father and son and how a football team unites them in an unbreakable bond, it is also the story of a city, a community, and a treasured way of life.”

Tierney was a general feature writer at The Herald, mostly for its magazine, for about ten years. During that time, he won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, the Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism, two British Press Awards and four Scottish Press Awards.

He left six years ago and has been involved in large-format publishing projects, along with his own writing project and including spending a lot of time in the United Arab Emirates.

Buy ‘The First Game with My Father’ here. For any interviews, contact Alison Barrow, director of Media Relations, Transworld Publishers, on 07970 450 184 or 0208 231 6654.

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CHECK out too this media release – posted here on allmediascotland.com – announcing the publication on Thursday, of the latest book by well-known Scots journalist, Jean Rafferty.

Says the media release of ‘The Four Marys': “This collection of provocative novellas gives a modern twist to tales of women for whom all is not necessarily as it seems, or as each woman would want her life to be. The original ‘Four Marys’ were ladies-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. According to legend, one was executed for murdering her own baby. In this quartet of stories, four modern Marys – Mhairi, Mara, Mercedes and Mariana – have their own dark tales to tell.”

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THE ‘dangers’ of using the internet to advertise one’s business is explored in an article by solicitor, Pamela Abbott, in The Scotsman – here.

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THE broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, is seeking a member of its content board to represent Scotland – as advertised here and repeated on twitter.com/allmediajobs. The post involves takes up to three days per month.

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MORE on reports yesterday and Sunday about BBC Scotland presenter, Gary Robertson, being axed… read The Guardian’s take, which also alludes to claims of pro-Union bias in BBC output.

Meanwhile, The Herald – in a short news item – reports today that industrial action at the BBC appears to have been averted “following crisis talks”. Says the paper: “[BBC] bosses met with National Union of Journalists officials following months of discontent at the broadcaster and anger at the axing of anchorman, Gary Robertson.”

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A RUGBY match between Scotland and the USA is to be streamed live, on the website of the Daily Record newspaper.

Taking place on Sunday in Houston, Texas, the match – with new head coach, Vern Cotter, taking charge of Scotland for the first time – will kick-off at 1.30am, UK time.

Free access to the stream will be via www.dailyrecord.co.uk.

Read more, here.

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THE launch, last night, of a local TV channel serving Glasgow and the west of Scotland, may have been mostly about STV, but it also involved local university, Glasgow Caledonian.

The channel is a joint collaboration between STV and GCU as will an upcoming station for Edinburgh involve both STV and Edinburgh Napier University.

And says GCU, in a media statement, here: “Six GCU graduates from the Glasgow School for Business and Society have secured positions with STV and will be working on the new STV Glasgow channel, which is being delivered in partnership with GCU. Their roles include assistant producer, video journalist, production journalist and reporter.”

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REPORT the fashion sector? Interested in it? Then check out the new twitter.com/allFashionPR.

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BEGINS The Southern Reporter newspaper, yesterday: “Chief Superintendent, Gill Imery, has told a press conference in Kelso that Police Scotland are aware that the three people killed at the Jim Clark Rally on Saturday may have had media accreditation.

“However, she added that the investigation is still at an early stage.”

Read more, here.

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WIDELY covered – including in the Daily Record, The Herald and The Scotsman: A Scots former presenter on breakfast TV is reported to have been ordered to repay more than £100,000, after being convicted of committing housing benefit fraud.

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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.

PS Your Noon Briefing is a relatively new venture for allmediascotland.com. We are no longer going to report news, story-by-story. Instead, we are going to find content we hope will be useful, in the belief it will prove to be a more comprehensive service.