The Spike

Published on Thursday 6 September 2007 00:54

Losing Patience...

FORMER Edinburgh University student Ian MacGregor yesterday took the helm at the Sunday Telegraph after the abrupt ousting of previous incumbent Patience Wheatcroft. He addressed the troops after Wheatcroft became the fourth editor in just over two years to depart the title. MacGregor started his career at South West News agency in Bristol then moved to London, where he rose through the ranks at Associated, becoming deputy editor at the Evening Standard then deputy editor at the Daily Telegraph. College chums recall him as editor of Edinburgh campus newspaper Student. A former hack on the student paper said: "Ian exuded ambition even then."

Orla heads north

RADIO Orla, a London-based FM station broadcasting in Polish and English, is scouring Scotland looking for any signs of a spare FM licence. Scotland already has a bilingual newspaper aimed at Polish expats in the Highlands, and radio is seen as a natural progression. Orla currently serves the Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow areas of west London and is keeping an eye out for any small FM franchises that come free north of the Border next year. The station says: "Next year we hope to go on Sky - that will provide breadth to the station - and then we will be in Scotland."

Spin blogger

FORMER Scotsman and Daily Record journalist Stephen Rafferty has incorporated a blog on the travails of being a hack as part of his rebranded PR business, Sure PR. He modestly states: "There are so many bad, indifferent, pointless, unfathomable blogs out there, that another one won't make much difference." So far, he has written on a big oil industry shindig in Aberdeen plus a casino night.

Rafferty, who looks after oil and industry clients in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, is hopeful his new web incarnation "is a bit different from some of the po-faced, jargon-infested PR websites you find out there".

PM at ten

STILL on websites, much amusement for the Tories at the breathless biog of Gordon Brown on the Downing Street website. One passage says of the PM: "At the age of ten, he joined Kirkcaldy High School, where he excelled at sport and joined in every aspect of school life, quickly becoming popular, and taking an early interest in local political campaigns." Greg Hands MP claims the website is reminiscent of a biography of North Korean Communist leader Kim Il Sung.

"It shows a man who is deeply insecure when he's boasting about his popularity aged ten," he reckons.