BBC Scotland’s head of news and current affairs, Atholl Duncan, is stepping down, the corporation has announced.

Duncan will take up a role as executive director, UK and Global, for ICAS – the professional body for accountants, after overseeing coverage of the Scottish election on 5 May.

Duncan has been in charge of the BBC’s Scottish news operation since December 2006. He first joined the corporation in 1984 and worked in a variety of senior news roles.

In a release, BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie paid tribute to Duncan’s commitment and professionalism: “Atholl has played a key role in delivering high quality journalism for our audiences, however they choose to consume it. Under his stewardship, our news team has won a string of awards and we wish him well in his new role.”

Following Duncan’s departure, John Boothman will become acting head of news and current affairs until the role is filled on a permanent basis.

• Channel 4 (part 3): BBC Worldwide could benefit from merger, says Duncan
• Channel 4 (part 2): Duncan says channel is still key source of cutting-edge content
• Channel 4 (part 1): Station plans to focus more on regional content
• #followjourn – @duncanhooper Duncan Hooper/managing editor
• Guardian: BBC News head tipped as director of audio and music

You’ll find the information tucked away on the BBC Freedom of Information site at this link.

Update: Journalism.co.uk wasted a little bit of its time getting the annoyingly inaccessible BBC PDFs into spreadsheet format, but knew that the Guardian’s data people would be doing that too. So we’ll get back to other duties while you have fun with this from the Guardian’s DataBlog:  DATA: download the full spreadsheet of BBC executive expenses.

More to follow from Journalism.co.uk, but in the meantime the links you’ll need if you want to play yourself. Some files are missing – BBC Information informs us that there are more to come.

• Executive Board expenses 2008/09 PDF (115KB)
• Executive Board expenses 2007/08 PDF (103KB)
• Executive Board expenses 2006/07 PDF (108KB)
• Executive Board expenses 2005/06 PDF (96KB)
• Executive Board expenses 2004/05 PDF (94KB)

And the individuals:

• Mark Thompson, Director-General

Mark Thompson’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (63KB)
Mark Thompson’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (47KB)
Mark Thompson’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (48KB)
Mark Thompson’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (44KB)
Mark Thompson’s expenses 2004/05 PDF (42KB)

• Mark Byford, Deputy Director-General

Mark Byford’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (41KB)
Mark Byford’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (41KB)
Mark Byford’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (42KB)
Mark Byford’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (41KB)
Mark Byford’s expenses 2004/05 PDF (40KB)

• Jana Bennett, Director, Vision

Jana Bennett’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (47KB)
Jana Bennett’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (48KB)
Jana Bennett’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (48KB)
Jana Bennett’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (48KB)
Jana Bennett’s expenses 2004/05 PDF (51KB)

• Tim Davie, Director, Audio & Music

Tim Davie’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (47KB)
Tim Davie’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (42KB)
Tim Davie’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (47KB)
Tim Davie’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (41KB)

• Erik Huggers, Director, Future Media & Technology

Erik Huggers’ expenses 2008/09 PDF (39KB)

• Sharon Baylay, Director, Marketing, Communications & Audiences

• Lucy Adams, Director, BBC People – biography to be published shortly

• Zarin Patel, Chief Financial Officer

Zarin Patel’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (42KB)
Zarin Patel’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (42KB)
Zarin Patel’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (45KB)
Zarin Patel’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (40KB)
Zarin Patel’s expenses 2004/05 PDF (37KB)

• John Smith, Chief Executive Officer, BBC Worldwide

John Smith’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (44KB)
John Smith’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (44KB)
John Smith’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (44KB)
John Smith’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (46KB)
John Smith’s expenses 2004/05 PDF (46KB)

• Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer

Caroline Thomson’s expenses 2008/09 PDF (50KB)
Caroline Thomson’s expenses 2007/08 PDF (51KB)
Caroline Thomson’s expenses 2006/07 PDF (51KB)
Caroline Thomson’s expenses 2005/06 PDF (45KB)
Caroline Thomson’s expenses 2004/05 PDF (50KB)

And while we’re about it – here’s the link to the Audit Committee standing orders:

• Audit Committee standing orders PDF (89KB)
• Audit Committee standing orders text-only version

• Nominations Committee standing orders PDF (77KB)
• Nominations Committee standing orders text-only version

• Remuneration Committee standing orders PDF (63KB)
• Remuneration Committee standing orders text-only version

And the Register of interests:

• Mark Thompson, Director-General
• Mark Byford, Deputy Director-General
• Jana Bennett, Director, Vision
• Tim Davie, Director, Audio & Music
• Erik Huggers, Director, Future Media & Technology
• Sharon Baylay, Director, Marketing, Communications & Audiences
• Lucy Adams, Director, BBC People
• Zarin Patel, Chief Financial Officer
• John Smith, Chief Executive Officer, BBC Worldwide
• Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer

• Marcus Agius
• Val Gooding
• Dr Mike Lynch
• David Robbie
• Dr Samir Shah
• Robert Webb

MORE:

Expenses:

• RFI20090694 – Executive Board expenses – last 5 financial years
• RFI20090644 – Highest 50 earning staff – expenses
• RFI20080375 – Director General’s annual expenses budget
• RFI20080338 – Cost of hospitality in meetings
• RFI20080313 – 2006/07 costs of staff abroad
• RFI20080172 – BBC Highland costs
• RFI20080024 – 2007 Christmas party costs

General:

• RFI20080381 – BBC Scotland spend on bottled water
• RFI20080363 – Radio 3 budget
• RFI20080351 – Spend on lobbying at Whitehall
• RFI20080308 – BBC spend on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
• RFI20080285 – Public relations costs
• RFI20080272 – 2007/08 sponsorship revenue
• RFI20080250 – Revenue from event sponsorship
• RFI20080247 – Total spend on bottled water in last 5 years
• RFI20080235 – Money made by BBC event sponsorship
• RFI20080165 – Out of court settlements for sex and race discrimination
• RFI20080146 – Cost of Beijing Olympics
• RFI20080137 – 7 questions regarding Northern Ireland costs
• RFI20080068 – Salford Council sponsorship of the BBC Philharmonic
• RFI20080032 – Spend on bottled water in London and Glasgow
• RFI20080025 – Funding for Public Service Broadcasting

Travel and transport:

• RFI20080614 – Taxi and private car hire spend 2007/08
• RFI20080190 – 2007 taxi spend via expense claims
• RFI20080189 – 2007 taxi spend via central bookings
• RFI20080178 – BBC Scotland taxi spend
• RFI20080171 – 2007 flight details
• RFI20080164 – Northern Ireland taxi bill over last 3 years
• RFI20080145 – Rail journeys and flights taken by staff
• RFI20080121 – 2007 taxi spend by London staff
• RFI20080073 – Hotel and flight expenses

• Media Release: BBC axes deputy director general post and Mark Byford
• WSJ.com: Joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 could be agreed within weeks
• Little will be keynote speaker at the World Digital Publishing Conference
• Prince’s Trust chief exec joins Media Trust board of trustees
• #jpod: The top news stories from Journalism.co.uk, 1 April 2011

Well, we could have brought you ‘Flocking Around the Twitmas Tree’, ‘We Three Nings’ or just a straightforward end of the year list (if only to add to our list of lists), but instead we chose this: your sing-along treat to round-up 2008 is the ‘Twelve Days of Online Media Christmas’ (hyperlinked to relevant stories, but bear in mind it’s a selection of picks and not comprehensive…).

On the first day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … An editor in a law court

Colin Myler, News of the World

On the second day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Two arrested hacks

Milton Keynes Citizen’s Sally Murrer / ITV’s John Ray (video below)

… And an editor in a law court.

On the third day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Three web gaffes

Steve Jobs and CNN / United Airlines stock collapse / AFP photo ‘altering’

… Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the fourth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Four journo forums

Wired Journalists / Journalism Research / Visual Editors / Journalism.co.uk forum

… Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the fifth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends

Stephen Fry / Paul Carr / John Cleese / Mark Mayhew (Hurricane Gustav) / the Mad Men

… Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the sixth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Six news sites out-linking

WashingtonPost.com, BBC, NYTimes.com, CNN.com, Drudge Report, Not the AP (they didn’t even want to be linked to)

… Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the seventh day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Seven feeds a-mashing

Publish2.com, Daylife, Delicious, Digg, Technorati, FriendFeed, Yahoo Pipes

… Six sites out-linking, Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the eighth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Eight maps a’plotting

Hurricane Gustav tracker, BBC Beijing Olympics map, PaperCuts newspaper job losses map, Economist pre-election map, NYTimes.com post-election map, Managingnews.com’s newstracker during Chinese earthquake, Interactive maps of Canadian tornado damage, Journalism.co.uk new timeline-maps.

… Seven pipes a-mashing, Six sites out-linking, Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the ninth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Nine strikers strikin’

Le Monde, Writers’ Guild of America, Australian Fairfax newspapers, Express Newspapers, Sheffield Star.

(or at least thinking about it…) Trinity Mirror Midlands, Telegraph Media Group, ITV regional, BBC Scotland.

… Eight maps a-plotting, Seven pipes a-mashing, Six sites out-linking, Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the tenth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Ten blogs a-blooming

10,000words.net, Adrianmonck.com, Jay Rosen’s PressThink, OnlineJournalismBlog, BBCJournalismLabs, BusinessMediaBlog, RegretTheError.com, Publishing2.com, Spokesman Review’s Daily Briefing, Tomorrow’s News Tomorrow’s Journalists

… Nine strikers strikin’, Eight maps a-plotting, Seven pipes a-mashing, Six sites out-linking, Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Eleven papers packing

(up for new offices) The Guardian, the Birmingham Mail, the Independent.

(away their desks forever) NY Sun, Belfast’s La Nua, Kazakhstan’s Law and Justice, Moscow’s The Exile, US Post newspapers, Trinity Mirror weekly titles, Switzerland’s Mittelland, three editions of Spanish Metro.

… Ten blogs a-blooming, Nine strikers strikin’, Eight maps a-plotting, Seven pipes a-mashing, Six sites out-linking, Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks, And an editor in a law court!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my feed read’r brought to me … Twelve sites a-starting

Trinity Mirror mobile sites, outside.in UK, Spot.Us, Hubdub.com, Coventry Telegraph, FT’s Alphaville Long Room, Magicalia, DailyPostCymraeg.co.uk, Time Out Kuala Lumpur, the BusinessDesk Northwest, the Daily Beast.

(and re-focusing) CSMonitor.com.

… Eleven papers packing, Ten blogs a-blooming, Nine strikers strikin’, Eight maps a-plotting, Seven pipes a-mashing, Six sites out-linking, Five Tweeeeeetin’ friends, Four journo forums, Three web gaffes, Two arrested hacks and an editor in a law court!

• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk
• MEN journalists respond to news of arrested photographer
• Star News Online: Why news organisations should link to the competition
• RCFP: Texas court finds links in e-mail can be defamatory
• Malaysian court orders newspaper to reveal online commenters

All staff at Newsquest’s three Glasgow titles, the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times – bar a handful of senior management roles – have been made redundant and told to reapply for their jobs in a move to cut 30-40 posts.

The announcement follows the appointment yesterday of Donald Martin as editor-in-chief across all three titles.

According to a blog post by Shaun Milne, staff have been put on 90-day notice, as part of plans to integrate the three titles. “[T]he titles will adopt a 24/7 approach from a single operation taking in the web, evening, daily and Sunday titles,” writes Milne (in reference to one of the industry’s worst kept secrets this year…)

The announcement comes as BBC Scotland said it would axe 70 jobs, including an expected 20 from news and current affairs – this figure is on top of the 96 redundancies implemented in September, a release from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said.

The NUJ chapel at BBC Scotland has sent a letter to controller Ken MacQuarrie protesting against the proposed job losses.

In a release, Pete Wishart MP, SNP Westminster Culture spokesperson, said the cuts marked ‘a sad day for Scottish journalism’.

Commenting on the Herald&Times cuts, Wishart said:

“Any decision that threatens news coverage and quality is clearly troubling and these cut backs are a backward step by the group’s owners.

“When Newsquest acquired these newspapers they made a commitment to develop and invest in them, regrettably those words do not seem to have been backed up by investment.”

• Newsquest announces 40 job cuts: ‘poor trading conditions’ to blame
• Guardian: ‘This was not a redundancy announcement’
• Trinity Mirror to close or sell Northampton and Long Eaton titles
• Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation
• NUJ invites News International journalists to meeting

The possibility of compulsory redundancy for an assistant producer at BBC Scotland has led the NUJ to raise the issue of industrial action across the whole of the BBC.

• NUJ Release: Thousands of BBC journalists to strike over compulsory redundancy risk
• MediaGuardian: 20 compulsory redundancies at Independent
• Victory for FT Chinese journalists
• RBI staff vote against further industrial action
• NUJ Release: Strike action halted at Trinity Mirror Birmingham titles