“On-demand is spoken about as the great white hope but in the short-term it is totally cannibalistic.”

Channel 4’s Andy Barnes is cautious about on-demand’s benefits.

(Source: Media Week)

MediaCom has hired Tim Lawrence as digital strategy director. He joins from his role as digiatal associate director at Carat. (Source: Brand Republic)

Mark Finnegan has been made UK media director of Orion Trading. He joins from Global Radio, and will be charged with developing media opportunities across clients. (Source: Brand Republic)

Mirror Group Newspapers have bolstered their digital strategy by hiring Abeed Janmohamed as head of digital sales. (Source: Brand Republic)

The Telegraph Media Group has promoted James Brown to the new role of digital sales director. He will be responsible for commercial strategy, inventory control and the development of new revenue streams. (Source: Brand Republic)

Red Door Communications has made two new appointments. Rachel Vrettos retuns after maternity leave as head of consumer health, and Vicky Lygoe has joined as senior account manager. (Source: PR Week)

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations has named Jane Wilson as its new CEO. She joins from Seatwave.com. (Source: PR Week)

JCPR has appointed two new directors, Melissa Hinds and Shilpa Shaw. Hinds will be in charge of the consumer division, and Saul will head up entertainment and culture. (Source: PR Week)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has appointed Andrew Whyte as its latest director of communications. He joins from the Department for Environemnt, Food and Rural Affairs. (Source: PR Week)

The Times has had a shakeup in its newsroom. Mike Smith has been made deputy home editor and Suzy Jagger has become foreign news editor. (Source: MediaGuardian)

Justin Davenport has been promoted to the position of crime editor for the London Evening Standard. Mark Prigg has been made science and technology editor, while Kiran Randhawa is becoming health and social affairs correspondent. Russel Lynch joins the paper as a business reporter. (Source: MediaGuardian)

Frank le Duc has left his position as editor of Northcliffe’s weekly Sussex and East Surrey newspapers after nine months. (Source: Press Gazette)

Jeremy Langmead has quit as editor of Esquire magazine. He leaves his position of three and a half years to join retail website Mr Porter. (Source: MediaGuardian)

Johnston Press has made three senior appointments. Henry Faure Walker has been appointed digital and business development director. Steve Brown is its new divisional managing director for the north and Tim Robinson has been appointed as the new editor of the Courier. (Source: Press Gazette)

GQ has appointed Justin Barriball as associate publisher, while Vanessa Kingori has been promoted to associate publisher of GQ Style. (Source: Brand Republic)

Andy Duncan, the former chief executive of Channel 4, has joined HR Owen in the same capacity. He takes over from Nick Lancaster, who left in May. (Source: MediaGuardian)

Fiona Walford has been recruited as strategic business development director at IPC Media. She moves from her position of eight years at MediaCom. (Source: Brand Republic)

GQ has hired two new columnists. Historian Simon Schama and culture, communications and the creative industries minister Ed Vaizley will appear in the October issue. (Source: journalism.co.uk)

Robin Esser is to become the new president of the Society of Editors. He will take over from current editor Donald Martin. (Source: Press Gazette)

Lucy Neville-Rolfe has swapped her role at Tesco for a non-executive director position at ITV. She will be charged with driving the team’s turnaround. (Source: The Independent)

Channel 5 staff are taking voluntary redundancy following Richard Desmond’s buyout of the channel. Nick Wilson (director of children’s programming), Chris Shaw (senior programme manager) and Robert Charles (sport controller) are leaving. (Source: MediaGuardian)

Project Canvas, the BBC-backed on-demand video service, is ignoring the interests of the local TV industry according to the Community Media Association.

Jaqui Deveroux, director of CMA , urged the BBC and other partners to make Canvas “available to smaller community broadcasters”.

“There is a danger that they aren’t going to, as their current plans don’t include us,” said Deveroux.

The CMA’s concerns join recent complaints of the project from Virgin Media and Six TV, the latter of which warned that Canvas would be “catastrophic for small-scale services”.

This article appears in issue 251 of Media Digest.

(Source: Media Week)

The BBC is attempting to converge its iPlayer platform and social media in a recent update to the on-demand video player.

The developments enable users to connect an iPlayer profile to Facebook and Twitter accounts, where they can send and receive recommendations among friends.

“We wanted to connect iPlayer up with the users’ online interactions with friends – to bring a social dimension to watching and listening,” wrote head of iPlayer James Hewines.

“This next step is about allowing users to interact with the service and each other around our programmes.”

This article appears in issue 251 of Media Digest.

(Source: Media Week)

A chief police officer has reminded forces across the country that they have no right to stop people taking pictures in public.

The chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ media advisory group, Andy Trotter, told forces that the practice is “unacceptable” and “undermines public confidence” in the police.

He also warned that officers have no power to force photographers to delete images, following reports that police have been using terrorism laws to do so.

Writing in a letter to forces, he said: “We must acknowledge that citizen journalism is a feature of modern life and police officers are now photographed and filmed more than ever.

“Unnecessarily restricting photography, whether for the casual tourist or professional is unacceptable and it undermines public confidence in the police service.”

Trotter went on to remind forces of the relationship that photographers and police have: “We need to cooperate with the media and amateur photographers. They play a vital role as their images help us identify criminals.”

This article appears in issue 251 of Media Digest.

Image taken by Flickr user naixn, licenced under Creative Commons.

(Source: Press Gazette)

Future Publishing is to launch an iPad version of its gadget magazine, T3.

The digital magazine will exploit the benefits offered by a digital outlet, including video, 360-degree animation and interactive galleries.

Future has seen a sixfold increase in US print sales of the magazine since April.

Future chief executive Stevie Spring claimed that digital publishing represented “more than a quarter” of revenue for the six months to the end of March.

This article appears in issue 251 of Media Digest.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

The fallout between the BBC and the racing driver revealed to be Top Gear’s Stig, has escalated, with Jeremy Clarkson announcing that Ben Collins is “sacked”.

“He’s history as far as we are concerned,” said the presenter after the BBC failed to halt the publishing of Collins’ autobiography.

He added that the BBC’s most successful export is “damaged but not out”.

This article appears in issue 251 of Media Digest.

(Source: MediaGuardian)

Publisher Random House has started its own ‘interactive story’ experiment, using social media website Stardoll to publish Mortal Kiss.

Characters from the book will have profiles on the website, and Stardoll members can vote to change the storyline.

But Random House is hoping that the majority will spend real money on items relating to the story to decorate their own profiles.

Stardoll claims to have more than 100 million members. Mortal Kiss will be serialised on the website until 31 October.

This article appears in issue 251 of Media Digest.

(Source: Brand Republic)