Your Noon Briefing: John McTernan, DAB transmitters, etc

HE’S been a regular columnist on The Scotsman for at least these last couple of years.

And The Herald is reporting – here – that John McTernan (described as “one of [former Prime Minister] Tony Blair’s most senior former aides”) has been appointed chief of staff to the Scottish Labour leader, Jim Murphy.

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ALSO begins The Herald: “Plans for Scotland’s first international film studio, part of a £138 million development outside Edinburgh, will be revealed to the public next week.

“The backers of the Pentland Studios plan, which involves the construction of a £31m film studio as part of a major development at Straiton, believe they could start construction on the country’s first major film shooting facility as early as October.”

Read more, here.

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AN appeal has been made to the owner of the Express Newspapers group – comprising the Daily Express, the Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the Daily Star Sunday – that he sell up.

The plea has come from the National Union of Journalists which says it fears the titles could disappear under the present ownership.

The four titles have dedicated Scots editions.

Read more, here.

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BEGINS the website, radiotoday.co.uk: “The Government is about to announce details of a major expansion of local DAB transmitters, with 182 new transmitters across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“The plan will also allow modifications to 49 other sites and will take the population coverage of local stations on DAB from 76 per cent today to 91.2 per cent within 18 months. The first new transmitters will be built in March 2015 and the programme will complete by September 2016. In total, nearly 40,000km of roads will be covered by the local DAB signal.”

Read more, here.

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JUST issued, this very minute: the latest newspapers-sales-in-Scotland figures. Visit www.allmediascotland.com/the-media-in-figures for all the details!

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