Scotland Today
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Scotland Today | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | News |
| Presented by | John MacKay (Main anchor) Louise White (Main stand-in) |
| Country of origin |  Scotland |
| Production | |
| Running time | Main bulletin: 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | STV Central |
| Original run | 1972 – Present |
Scotland Today is the flagship news programme on STV, in Central Scotland. Despite its name suggesting a national remit, the programme is actually limited to stories around STV's Central Belt franchise. North Tonight covers STV's North Scotland region (from North Fife upwards), meanwhile ITV Border covers southern Scotland as well as Cumbria in England and the Isle of Man in Lookaround. BBC Scotland provides a national service for the whole country, in the shape of Reporting Scotland.
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[edit] History
Based in Glasgow, the programme began in 1972 in a style very similar to Reporting Scotland, anchored by John Toye. At first, the programme was double headed, but within a year, John became its solo presenter and would continue to present Scotland Today for 12 years. During the first ten years of the programme, it was only on air for ten months of the year, taking a regular summer break.
In 1984, following John Toye's departure, Scotland Today was given a major overhaul. Sheena McDonald and Haig Gordon now oversaw a more feature-based programme, presented on sofas as opposed to desks. In spite of early criticism about the new style, the programme remained popular. However, the Independent Broadcasting Authority heavily criticised the changes and by 1986, Scotland Today had reverted back to a news-based format. A year later, Shereen Nanjiani made her presenting debut on Scotland Today. Already a reporter, she would remain as anchor for the next 18 years.
In its time, Scotland Today has become a credible news programme, covering covered stories such as the Dunblane massacre, the Lockerbie bombing,(not even in the STV Central broadcast area but don't worry about it.) the Glasgow International Airport attack in 2007 and the Argyll priest scandal in the nineties.
In 2000, Scotland Today won the RTS award for "Regional Daily News Magazine".
The programme faced major changes in 2006 as a result of mass redundancies both in the newsroom and technical support division. Presenters Shereen Nanjiani, Sarah Heaney and sports presenter Jane Lewis all took voluntary redundancy. Sarah left the programme in March, 2006. Jane followed her on April 24, 2006, with Shereen leaving on May 5, 2006. Several reporters also left the programme, they include Matt Bingham, Becky Hunter, Alan Saunby, Iona Scott and Roddy Scott.
Scotland Today launched a brand new look on Monday July 24, 2006, as STV moved to its new purpose-built studios at Pacific Quay. The new look was also introduced to tie-in with the newly rebranded STV. A new format was introduced, with only one main presenter, at the desk. The secondary presenter would stand at the plasma screen across from the desk to read more lifestyle stories, and a brief round-up of more of the day's news. The secondary presenter would return at the end of the programme to lead into the weather forecast, which they would voice over the weather graphics. The use of a secondary presenter was dropped in January 2007.
On January 8, 2007 Scotland Today launched a split news service. Viewers in the west and the east of central Scotland each get a dedicated bulletin within the main Scotland Today reporting on what is happening in the communities. In the west, the programme covers from Tobermory to Falkirk, with the presenter based in the main Scotland Today studio in Glasgow. Meanwhile, the east opt-out reports from Anstruther to Dunbar and is presented & produced at STV's Edinburgh's studios. The East opt-out is directed from a technical gallery in Glasgow.
On April 7, 2007, it was revealed that GMTV has not renewed STV's contract to supply early morning Scotland Today bulletins. The contract has been awarded to the Belfast-based Macmillan Media, which has offices in London and Glasgow, and already provides regional GMTV News in Northern Ireland. GMTV Scotland began on December 3, 2007.[1] STV has supplied GMTV with its news since the breakfast channel took over from TV-am in 1993. The newsroom produced three bulletins of about three minutes each at 06.35, 07.05 and 08.05. This has also affected Scotland Today's sister programme North Today.[2]
From June 4, 2007, STV began producing video blogs for viewers in Central Scotland, named The Real MacKay as main anchor John MacKay fronts the video. The blog lasts a couple of minutes and gives visitors a preview of the main edition at 6pm, and interviews the makers of the programme. The blogs can be seen at stv.tv, and are updated every weekday. The blog's success has led STV to produce another three regular video blogs - Northern Exposure (from North Tonight), Weather Blether (which combines both text and video blogs) and White, Not MacKay, a spin-off of The Real MacKay presented by main stand-in anchor Louise White. When Heather Simpson presents the programme, it is renamed Not The Real MacKay.
In October 2007, STV head of news Gordon Macmillan confirmed that the channel would launch a region-wide magazine programme at the start of 2008, airing across Northern and Central Scotland from 5.30pm until the separate news programmes begin at 6.00pm. The Five Thirty Show launched on 28 January 2008 with presenters Stephen Jardine and Debi Edward (who was replaced by Rachel McTavish). No changes were made to either Scotland Today or North Tonight.[3]
[edit] On air
Scotland Today airs on STV Central seven days a week. The first bulletin of the day airs immediately after a mid-morning ITV News Summary, during This Morning, this update airs for around seven minutes. The lunchtime edition of the programme follows on from the ITV Lunchtime News, giving a six minute round-up of the days developments at 1:55pm. The main evening edition of Scotland Today begins at 6.00pm, and ends at 6.30pm. The late eleven-minute news update from STV Central follows the News at Ten from Monday to Thursday at 10:30pm. The late bulletin on Friday is broadcast at 11:30pm.
Scotland Today also airs short lunchtime and early evening bulletins on Saturdays and Sundays. The Sunday evening bulletin is followed by a signed round-up of the week's main news, called Scotland This Week.
[edit] The team
Currently, the Scotland Today on-air team consists of the following:
[edit] Main anchors
- John MacKay (Monday-Thursday)
- Louise White (Friday)
[edit] Local newsreaders
East
West
- Kelly-Ann Bishop
- Heather Simpson [on maternity leave]
- Louise White
[edit] Sports presenters
[edit] Weather presenters
- Seán Batty
- Jo Farrow (relief)
- Tanya James (relief)
[edit] Reporters
- Kelly-Ann Bishop
- Joanne Bonnar
- Gordon Chree
- David Cowan (Chief Reporter)
- Michael Crow (Political Correspondent - shared with North Tonight)
- Mike Edwards (Senior News Reporter)
- Sharon Frew
- Karen Greenshields
- Nichola Kane
- Grant Lauchlan (Entertainment Correspondent)
- Jamie Livingstone (Senior Political Reporter - shared with North Tonight)
- Ranald Leask
- Laura Millar
- Diana Milford
- Nicol Nicolson
- Bernard Ponsonby (Political Editor - shared with North Tonight)
- Clair Stevens
[edit] Past presenters
Past presenters include:
- Sarah Heaney
- Stephen Jardine
- Jane Lewis
- Viv Lumsden
- Sheena McDonald
- Shereen Nanjiani
- Angus Simpson
- John Toye
- Kirsty Young
[edit] Production Team
The Scotland Today production team includes:
- Head of News/Executive Producer: Gordon McMillian (also head of news for STV North)
- Chief Editor: Howard Simpson
- Producers: Linda Grimes Douglas, Gordon McDougall, Lesley Colquhon Banks
- Studio Director: John Mason
- Newsgathering Editors: Jon Kean, Tom Lowe
- Forward Planning Editor: Ken Bryson
- Production Journalists: Alison MacGregor, Kirstin Anderson
- News Operations Manager: Bob Rae
- Resources Co-ordinator: Sharyn Fleming (also Newsgathering Editor)
- Gallery P.A.: Laura Trimble (also Studio Director)
- Satellite Truck Operator: Alex Lees
- Graphic Designer: Richard Groundsell
- Online Production Team: John Kilbride, Will Springer
N.B. Members of the production team regularly appear on The Real MacKay.
[edit] References
- ^ "Macmillan Media", Macmillan Media homepage, July, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ "Irish firm to provide news as GMTV pulls plug on STV", The Scotsman, 7 April 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ "SMG bullish despite profit plunge", BroadcastNow, 28 September 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
[edit] External links
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