Your Noon Briefing: Drinks to mark Scotsman move, Stripe triumph at UK awards, etc

THIS is the final week of The Scotsman operating from its Holyrood Road offices, Edinburgh, and tomorrow evening staff and ‘casuals’ are meeting to mark the occasion.

Drinks are taking place at Hemma (formerly the Tun), across the road from the papers’ HQ, from 8pm.

All are welcome to attend.

The Scotsman – along with sister titles, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News – is moving to Orchard Brae, still in the capital, after a few weeks in temporary offices in Morrison Street.

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AN Edinburgh-based company has been named the outstanding PR consultancy in the UK.

Stripe Communications received the accolade at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ excellence awards.

It is believed that it is the first time a Scots agency has ever won the title.

Read more here and also here.

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AN Orkney-based journalist and photographer has launched his own publication comprising over 100 aerial photographs of the islands.

Craig Taylor has produced the images for the 64-page Aerial Orkney from an aircraft and also by suspending a camera from beneath a kite.

The 41 year-old has worked full-time with Orkney Today and The Orcadian newspapers, plus freelanced for several years.

He was promoted to chief reporter at The Orcadian last August, after rejoining the paper back in 2011, following the closure of the award-winning Orkney Today the year before.

Aerial Orkney includes images of landmarks on the islands such as Standing Stones, Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel, built by Italian POW’s during World War Two, as well as numerous towns and villages, land and seascapes.

He is also editor of The Ba’ Magazine, an annual publication, published by The Orcadian, which captures all the action in words and pictures of the traditional mass ball game played through the streets of Kirkwall.

Craig told allmediascotland.com: “The inspiration for Aerial Orkney came from the fact that my first book Orkney from the air, which was published by The Orcadian back in 2009, sold out in both hard and soft cover. They had no plans for a reprint due to other projects, so I decided to bite the bullet and do it myself, in a totally new fresh, modern, glossy, high quality ‘coffee table magazine’ style format, containing many updated pictures, as well as images from my archive.”

Copies are on sale from www.craigtaylormedia.co.uk for £7.50 plus postage.

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BEGINS David Ross, in today’s Herald: “The Gaelic broadcaster who had to abandon his attempt to row across the Atlantic from New York to Stornoway has raised more than the £8,000 required to pay the salvage company to release his boat.”

It follows a story reported in The Herald yesterday (and flagged up here by allmediascotland) about Niall Iain Macdonald making an appeal for the money.

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AN event celebrating the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn is said to have accredited more than 120 media outlets from around the world to attend.

Bannockburn Live is taking place between the 28th and 29th of this month.

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BEGINS The Scotsman today: “The MSP at the centre of a row over appearing as a presenter on a BBC Scotland programme has pulled out of the show, it was confirmed last night.”

The story follows a report in yesterday’s Scotsman (reported here on allmediascotland), about Kezia Dugdale being one of the presenters planned for Crossfire, a BBC Radio Scotland show, due to debut on Sunday.

The Scotsman had yesterday reported criticism of her appointment – on the grounds of her being a politician.

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BEGINS the website, holdthefrontpage: “An award-winning former journalist who edited four weekly titles during a 28-year career in newspapers has launched a new PR and publishing company.

“Nic Outterside edited the Argyll Advertiser, Galloway Gazette, Buchan Observer and finally the Denbighshire Free Press before leaving the paper last November.”

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REPORT legal issues? Check out our new twitter.com/allLegalPR.

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BEGINS The Herald, today: “The Herald and Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, in association with People Make Glasgow, have joined forces to host the second Inspiring City Awards, which celebrate the people and organisations that make Glasgow great.”

Read more, here.

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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.