The Real MacKay

The Real MacKay is a supplementary video blog for the Central Scotland edition of the regional news programme, STV News at Six. The first blog was produced on Monday June 4 2007, and as of April 24 2009, 428 episodes have been made available.
The blog is presented and produced by John MacKay, the chief anchor for STV News in the Central region, and a new episode is produced almost every weekday from STV's headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. When Louise White is standing in for MacKay, the blog is renamed White Not MacKay. When both MacKay and White are off, the blog is renamed Not The Real MacKay and presented by other STV News staff.
Previously, Stephen Jardine was the main stand-in presenter for MacKay on Scotland Today as well as the blogs, but has since moved to work on The Five Thirty Show, a new region-wide magazine programme. Louise White was later confirmed as the new Friday presenter.
About the blog
The Real MacKay takes a mostly light-hearted daily look behind-the-scenes at the Central edition of STV News at Six and includes interviews with reporters & production staff.
Key moments
Occasionally, The Real MacKay has featured other aspects of STV Central and provided extra coverage of news stories.
*A specially extended edition was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of STV's flagship sports programme, Scotsport.
*By request of the STV website's forums, the presentation department was featured on two separate occasions - the latter featuring an appearance from chief announcer Maggie Lavender.
*Also by request of the forums, the news opt-out for the East was featured on three separate occasions - an 'as live' link-up to the Edinburgh newsroom and behind-the-scenes tours of the Edinburgh facilities and the production gallery (which is based in Glasgow).
*An extended interview with former world motor racing champion, Sir Jackie Stewart.
*A special programme on how the Scotland Today newsroom covered the 2007 terrorist attack at Glasgow International Airport.
*A question and answer session with Elizabeth Partyka, managing director of SMG Productions.
*A special from Manchester city centre ahead of Rangers' appearance in the 2008 UEFA Cup Final.
Viewer participation
In conjunction with the blogs, viewers can discuss episodes and STV News at Six as a whole with John MacKay and Louise White via STV's online forums. Occasional online polls and competitions are also included as part of the blogs as well as an experiment inviting international viewers to e-mail the programme.
White Not MacKay
On 9 January 2008, John MacKay announced on the STV website's forums that newsreader Louise White would become the regular Friday anchor of Scotland Today. Louise also presents/produces a special Friday edition of the blog entitled White Not MacKay, which covers various aspects of STV with reports and interviews.
The launch of White Not MacKay followed the success of Ask Kirstin, a similar feature series on the STV North online video blog, Northern Exposure, presented by Kirstin Gove. The first episode was uploaded on 11 January 2008.
Guest presenters
Some editions of the blog have been presented (or co-presented) and produced by various members of the newsroom staff including entertainment correspondent Grant Lauchlan, reporters Gordon Chree, Debi Edward, Karen Greenshields, Ranald Leask, Vicky Lee & Nicol Nicolson, weather forecaster Seán Batty, production journalists Nick Porter & Kirstin Anderson and sports correspondent Raman Bhardwaj.
Heather Simpson was a regular stand-in presenter for John MacKay and Stephen Jardine until she took maternity leave in November 2007. She has since appeared on the blog only occasionally.

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