NEWS INTERNATIONAL GROWS ONCE MORE

As journalist we are all to know that the press has been based in Wapping for years and years and its growing phenomenon has caught the eyes of millions people round the world, especially those living in London. Well times have changed and Murdoch’s news empire is moving miles across London to its new home in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Yep you heard it right, his new press palace situated on the A10 between Enfield and Waltham Cross is finished has been completed.

The futuristic complex which seems to have popped right out of a sci-fi film cost News International a portion of £650m and spans the size of 23 football pitches, it is equipped with 12 new printing press which can produce over 86,000 newspapers each; that is more then 1,000,000 an hour! This is more then 75% more then the previous Wapping plant was capable of with holding. The plant is just one of 3 new places that NI have created within the UK, the other two smaller ones based in Knowsley near Liverpool and the Eurocentral near Glasgow in Scotland.

The new Broxbourne site will revolutionise the look and design of NI’s famous papers including The Sun, News of the World, the Times and the Sunday Times; expanding their editorial pages and colour advertising. The Sunday Times will benefit the most with its business section pushing back deadline till Saturday afternoon; also most of the supplements are currently printed on Wednesday and Saturday but now will all be done on one day. I have seen this site being built; I have seen it grow from the ground up… literally; and what a magnificent building it is. I see it everyday when I am back home in Enfield as I drive round going from place to place shopping and going out, it will be a remarkable day when the plant fully opens at the end of April. It has been reported that it is the largest printing press in the world! It is the £350m crown jewel that the NI’s own. I also drove past and wanted to have a job there, perfect location near to home, great experience with News International’s new printing plant … who would say no to work there? I certainly wouldn’t I would jump at the chance it means I could walk to work from my home.

 

This plant will make it possible for full results from Premiership and Champions League football matches across the country for the first time, this was a problem in some publications because of the early edition deadlines; but not anymore.

Clive Milner, the managing director of NI says: “Our investment in Broxbourne is a step change in manufacturing and that step change is delivered by next generation technology, one of the things we will see as you go around this plant is a lack of people.” The plant only uses 450 staff to maintain the flow of newspapers each day.  The Broxboune site will also produce newspapers for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times when Telegraph Media Groups exits its contract with the West Ferry plant in East London. When all 12 printing presses at Broxbourne are operational the plant will print 1.5m copies of the Sun, 550,000 of the Times and 600,000 of the Daily Telegraph each night. How amazing does that sound? (in my opinion its really amazing!)

9 YEAR OLD SHANNON – FOUND ALIVE!!!!

As I’m sure we all know 9 year old Shannon Matthews from West Yorkshire has been found in the draw of a divan bed a mile from her home in a flat in Batley Carr; 23 days after she went missing! Millions of people across the country feared that she like so many in that situation would never be found alive again, however surprisingly she was found when someone from the public phoned The Missing Persons hot-line to say that they knew where the missing child was.  Hours after this telephone call police raided the flat of Michael Donovan 39, in Lidgate Gardens.

Michael Donovan who had changed his name from Paul Drake is the uncle to Shannon’s step father and it has come about that Donovan had been stalking Shannon for many months. She is said to be in safe and caring hands with child services until the police think its safe she is returned to her family home.

However many questions are raised when issues and situations like this occur. One might be how a extended family member was allowed to do this to a young child, another could be the effect and mental trauma it has had of parents of missing Madeline Mccan in Praia da Luz on May 3rd 2007. British police have been working 24/7 to try and locate the now found Shannon Matthews, they searched over 3,000 properties and interviewed more than 6,000 peoples in there 23 day battle. Many questions surround the police in Portugal and their lack of enthusiasm to help and find Madeline but without success.

Could it be that if she had gone missing in England she could of been found alive or even her body found at last? That is the opinion of many including myself that she would of been found by British police if she went missing in her home country.

Michael Donovan has been arrested tonight for kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon Matthews, he will be appearing in front of Dewsbury Magistrates Court on Tuesday 18th March 2008.

What has my mind puzzling is the reports that have surfaced since Shannon ran away, these reports have been that she wanted to run away initially because she wanted to live with her father could this be why she was kidnapped? Its really tough to say when you look at cases like this and it comes only down to peoples opinion and gossip mongering, but why would a extended family member kidnap Shannon? Why did the family not see this man stalking her? The most puzzling question of all is this…. with all the spats of killings, missing children and the nutters that we have living in our society undetected today; why would any mother of a 9 year old child let her walk to and from school which is a mile away? Its just like the question put to the Mccann family… “why leave your daughter by herself?” Its not for me to judge im just a journalist but is this responsible parenting?

If you think about the situation more ‘outside the box’ Fathers for Justice have more ammunition to use in the fight to see their children, Shannon who was not seeing her biological father was considering running away from home to see him because she wasnt allowed by normal means! Is this what mothers, fathers and the government want… children going missing because they are not abe to see their real parents because of laws or family arguements causing a rift. ??