Keeping it in the family...
I鈥檝e just finished listening to a fascinating documentary in which Roddy Forsyth tried to find out more about the publicity shy David Coupar Thomson, the Scottish newspaper proprietor, who founded his empire in 1905. He was the 鈥楧.C.鈥 in D.C. Thomson, the publishers of The Sunday Post, The Beano and The Dundee Courier.
鈥淚 am my own man and I will run my empire my way鈥 said the man, Roddy described as the Citizen Kane of Tayside.
For me it was a 鈥榤ust listen鈥. Like so many others at the 大象传媒 (Jackie Bird, Frieda Morrison and Roddy himself) I got my start in the media at D.C. Thomson. Joining as a fresh faced boy from Aberdeen, have great memories of my grounding there. It was ( and still is) a somewhat old-fashioned, patriarchal organisation run by the Thomson family who are still referred to by staff as 鈥Mr Andrew鈥 and 'Mr Brian鈥 and 鈥楳r Christopher鈥.
You can listen again here if you missed it.
Incidentally, Roddy Forsyth is also part of a 鈥榝amily firm鈥. He鈥檚 the brother of my favourite broadcaster, the talented and lovely Janice Forsyth. 鈥楳r Roddy鈥 covers sport for 5 Live and 鈥楳s Janice鈥 presents The Movie Cafe on Thursday, and on her extended Saturday morning show this week the guests are Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees and the actor Tony Robinson.
