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The Remarkable Group has boosted its broadcast media credentials with the appointment of former News at Ten journalist Alison Cooper. Alison has joined Remarkable as the company’s senior writer and adviser on broadcast issues and it’s a role she’s well qualified for.
Alison was a television journalist for twelve years, ten of which were spent in the high pressure environment of the ITN newsroom in London. During her time there Alison worked in front of the camera as a reporter, and behind the scenes as a chief writer for Sir Trevor MacDonald, assistant programme editor and senior producer on all of ITN’s programmes including the flagship News at Ten. For two years Alison ran the Science and Health Bureau and she also worked as a field producer at Westminster and in Northern Ireland.
Starting her career as a radio journalist in the region, Alison worked at Ocean FM and reading the news on Isle of Wight Radio. But London was calling and she began working in national and international news for Independent Radio News and then ITN World News.
Two years later and a short step across the newsroom, Alison joined the Early Evening News and News at Ten production team. Over the next few years she accumulated a thorough knowledge of the process of putting together news programmes and deciding which stories would make it to the running order and which wouldn’t.
“Going to the daily running order meetings and some of the senior management gatherings to discuss the day’s news gave me an extraordinary insight into what makes a good story for television. I also learned those subtle details which turn a story into a runner or condemn it as a dead duck!”
Alison regards her years at ITN as an invaluable and unique experience which gave her unparalleled experience in writing concisely, clearly and quickly, keeping the words to a minimum.
“Writing the closing headlines for a news programme like News at Ten while it is on air and stories are still breaking certainly gets the adrenaline going. You might have only two minutes to write twenty seconds of coherent, legal, sensible and balanced headlines. That really concentrates the mind.”
“Working for Remarkable will put me back into a situation where I’m with dynamic, hard working and fun people. I’m really looking forward to seeing a new side to news making. For me, it’s the other side of the fence. I’m stepping into fresh territory and trying out my skills in a new environment.”
Welcoming Alison to the team, PR director Chris Wotton said “Alison’s appointment is a major coup for the Remarkable PR division. With our extensive range of national clients this will give us further top level media credentials.”
