The Scottish News Consortium today welcomed the government’s go-ahead to bid for a multiplatform and channel 3 Scottish news contract.
The consortium comprises three of Scotland’s biggest news groups - DC Thomson, the Herald & Times Group and Johnston Press - and one of Britain’s largest independent television producers, Tinopolis.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said today the group qualified to go forward to the next stage of the tender process for its Independently Funded News Consortium Scottish pilot. The winner is due to be announced in March.
A consortium spokesman said: “We are delighted to go forward with what we regard as an unbeatable combination of Scottish reporting expertise and resources with a very powerful television company and innovative multiplatform plans.”
The consortium will propose fresh and creative solutions for Scottish and local news on television, the internet and other digital platforms to meet consumer needs. The group has an unrivalled newsgathering capability in Scotland with some 1,000 editorial staff in news bureaux across the nation.
The alliance publishes an enormous range of newspapers including dailies such as The Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, The Press and Journal, weekly titles such as the Stornoway Gazette, the Southern Reporter and the Aberdeen Citizen as well as The Sunday Post, Sunday Herald and Scotland on Sunday.
The consortium has an extensive online presence in Scotland with leading sites such as scotsman.com and heraldscotland.com.
Tinopolis’s Mentorn Media subsidiary has extensive experience in television and new media news, producing programmes such as Panorama and Traffic Cops for BBC One, and Dispatches and Cutting Edge for Channel 4. Mentorn Scotland this year becomes a major BBC independent supplier as production base for Question Time and BBC One’s Sunday morning discussion show, The Big Questions, as well as several other network programmes. Tinopolis is also S4C’s largest programme supplier and produces interactive media for a range of UK and international clients.
The Consortium is supported and advised by Mark Wood, formerly chairman and chief executive of ITN.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is seeking bids for government-funded pilot IFNCs to provide local news on digital platforms and on channel 3, which the commercial television companies say they can no longer afford to provide as advertising revenue declines. The government expects to declare the bid winner by mid-March.
Note to editors:
DC Thomson & Co Ltd was founded in 1905 and produces more than 100 million newspapers and magazines annually. The company publishes a number of newspaper titles, including The Press & Journal, Evening Express, The Courier & Advertiser, Evening Telegraph and The Sunday Post. DC Thomson also publishes a number of magazines, children’s publications and owns two book publishing companies. It is deeply involved in internet technology through its wholly-owned subsidiary Brightsolid (formerly Scotland Online), a leading UK independent provider of IT business services to large public and private sector organisations.
The Herald & Times Group publishes The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times and news web sites heraldscotland.com and eveningtimes.co.uk. It also publishes niche magazines and owns the s1 internet advertising company and a major printing plant. The Glasgow-based group was founded in 1783 and has some 600 staff.
Johnston Press is the second largest regional press company in the UK, employing over 6,000 staff and with a turnover in 2008 of £532m. The company has strong connections to Scotland having originated in Falkirk in 1767 and with its headquarters located in Edinburgh. Johnston Press is one of the biggest news organisations in Scotland with an extensive portfolio of newspapers and associated websites, including The Scotsman and scotsman.com.
Employing more than 400 people in London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Oxford and Llanelli, the Tinopolis Group produces broadcast television programming for all major domestic channels. Subsidiaries include Mentorn Media; leading sports producer Sunset + Vine; BAFTA-winning drama producers Daybreak Pictures; specialist factual producers Pioneer Productions; and the leading TV training company Video Arts, originally founded by John Cleese. Tinopolis Interactive specialises in new media products for education, training, corporate development and entertainment. Mentorn Scotland has been producing TV programmes for almost a decade, with titles such as Clans (BBC Scotland), The Last Word (BBC Scotland) and Traffic Cops (BBC One). Mentorn has produced Question Time for the BBC for 11 years from more than 200 locations across the UK, including Scottish venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fort William, Perth, Dunfermline, Aberdeen, Dundee and the Shetland Isles.
Press contact: Tom Thomson,
Group Managing Editor,
Herald & Times Group.
Email: tom.thomson@heraldandtimes.co.uk
Mobile: 07961-069307
Phone: 0141-302 7037