THE SON - why not become a reader... or even a Partner?

THE SON - Additional tabloid evangelists are required to help bring about more positive news in our papers.

Plymouth born media entrepreneur Duncan Williams said he was 'immensely impressed and delighted' when he discovered a radical new red-top being produced in his home city.

Says Duncan; "As a former tabloid hack it really was an instant hit with me! The Son is a welcome broadside shot at all those negative news stories that seems to dominate our British press. I simply love this paper's outlook!"

Duncan and his company Independent News Ltd. have pledged to get hundreds of copies of The Son distributed on London streets in time for Christmas...

"This is a really great little paper and I hope more people will get to read it!"


Read All About It!

The Son is a proactive, provocative and uncompromising newspaper which aims to put Jesus back at the centre of society. Written and presented in an easy to read tabloid style, based on the UK’s biggest circulation newspapers, The Son is an ideal tool to reach believers and unbelievers as well. As well as exclusive news, showbiz and sport from the paper, we bring you some groundbreaking exclusives and insight from The Son’s brilliant team of columnists.

Mission Statement

We have a simple goal at The Son:

"To use what God has given us, to share him with others."

The Son doesn't belong to us… or even to you! It's God's and we will humbly obey him and serve him in this ministry for as long as he wants. If you love the Lord and The Son, get involved.

Son Evangelists Required!

If you think The Son is awesome and you want to get involved, here's how you can become a partner.

This is your paper and we’d love to offer you the opportunity to get more involved. We are looking to set up a network of people that can get involved in this growing ministry by promoting The Son in their church, village or area.

People ask us, “How can we get involved?” – well here’s 3 ways:

Prayer

We believe this is a great ministry that enables people to read about the Christian life in a relevant, interesting and non-patronising way. Please pray for those involved in writing, producing, promoting and financing this project.

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The Son is currently quarterly but our readers would like it monthly. For £30.00 per issue (plus postage) you can buy 100 copies. Some people buy them and stick them through letterboxes, others give them out at libraries, cafés, businesses, etc. Be creative! It’s a great way of sharing great news! If you'd like to buy copies of The Son, call us on 01752 225623.

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News in Brief

ZUTONS: The lead singer of Liverpool
rock band The Zutons, who broke a
man's nose after his girlfriend was
insulted, was convicted of assault on
Wednesday. Dave McCabe, 29, headbutted
Peter Appleby during an alcoholfuelled
row outside a nightclub in February,
Liverpool Crown Court heard.
McCabe, who wrote the hit song Valerie
which was covered by Amy Winehouse
and Mark Ronson, reacted after one of
Mr Appleby's friends mocked his girlfriend's
fur-collared coat, saying it
looked like she had a beard. The rock
star denied assault occasioning actual
bodily harm and claimed he had acted
in self-defence. The Zutons formed in
2001 and have released three albums.

GREENPEACE: Greenpeace activists
have occupied an oil drilling ship
anchored off the Shetland Isles to push
for a ban on deepwater drilling in the
North Sea, the environmental group
said on Tuesday. Two activists used
speedboats to reach the 228-metre
long "Stena Carron" ship and climbed
up the rungs of the anchor chain before
hanging off the side in tents suspended
on ropes. One of the Greenpeace protesters,
Anais Schneider, said: "The
Shetlands are so beautiful and an oil
spill here could devastate this area and
the North Sea. "It’s time to go beyond
oil. Our addiction is harming the climate,
the natural world and our
chances of building a clean energy
future." US oil giant Chevron, which
operates the ship, accused Greenpeace
of endangering lives and appealed to
the group to immediately stop the
protest.

STOCKS: London shares fell at the end
of trade on Wednesday after a downbeat
economic outlook from the US
Federal Reserve, raising doubts over
the health of the world's largest economy.
The FTSE 100 index shed 0.44
per cent to close at 5,551.91 poiints.

HAMSTER: A British court sentenced a
man to nine weeks in prison on Wednesday
after he killed his favourite pet
hamster by cooking it in a microwave
during a drunken row with his girlfriend.
Unemployed Anthony Parker, 29, was
also banned from keeping any animals
for five years after he admitted causing
unnecessary suffering to the rodent resulting
in its death. Parker told police
after his arrest in Hartlepool in northeastern
England: "I didn't mean to kill
her. She was the best hamster I ever
had. She was called Suzie."

ROYAL MAIL: Employees at Royal Mail
will receive at least ten per cent of
shares following privatisation, Business
Secretary Vince Cable announced on
Wednesday. "This will be the largest
employee shares scheme of any privatisation
for 25 years in terms of the number
of workers who will benefit second
only to the privatisation of British Telecom
in 1984," Cable said as he
addressed the annual Liberal Democrat
party conference.

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News in Brief

DAVID IRVING: British historian David
Irving, who was jailed in Austria for
denying the Holocaust, said on Tuesday
he was in Poland to lead a tour of World
War II sites, including the former
Treblinka death camp. Holocaust survivors
and anti-racism groups have
slammed Irving's plans, even calling on
Polish authorities to ban his visit which
is also scheduled to take in a visit to the
former local headquarters of Hitler.

PAKISTAN POLICE: A 70-year-old British
man has been held in a Pakistani
jail for nearly a month after being arrested
in the lawless tribal belt on a journey
to Afghanistan, officials said on
Tuesday.

GREENPEACE: Greenpeace activists
had occupied an oil drilling ship
anchored off the Shetland Isles to push
for a ban on deepwater drilling in the
North Sea, the environmental group
said on Tuesday. Two activists used
speedboats to reach the 228-metre long
ship and climbed up the rungs of the
anchor chain before hanging off the
side in tents suspended on ropes.

CAIRN ENERGY: Cairn Energy,
renowned for a major oil find in India,
said on Tuesday that it had discovered
pockets of oil and further evidence of
gas in offshore Greenland. The group
said it had found two types of oil after
drilling in the Baffin Bay Basin.

FTSE: London shares ended slightly
weaker despite a strong start to the
week and ahead of a key meeting of the
US Federal Reserve expected to shed
light on the outlook for the US economy.
The FTSE 100 index fell 0.47 per cent
to 5,576.19 points.

ALZHEIMER'S: The number of
Alzheimer's sufferers worldwide will
double within 20 years to more than 65
million, according to a study published
on Tuesday to mark World Alzheimer's
Day. The cost of the disease and other
forms of dementia will cost one percent
of global gross domestic product this
year and the problem is set to grow
massively in the next two decades as
people live longer.

FERRY INSULT: The Dutch director of
Stena Line apologised on Tuesday for
calling British sailors "fat and covered in
tattoos" after a furious union boss
demanded that he retract his comments.
Pim de Lange also claimed it
was hard to find British crew who were
young and fit enough for the job.

MI6: The UK's foreign intelligence
agency MI6 published the first authorised
history of its early years on Tuesday,
revealing the exploits of both reallife
James Bonds and its worst ever
traitor. "MI6" was written by Keith Jeffrey,
a history professor at Queen's University
in Belfast who was granted
access to unseen archives from the
shadowy agency's creation in 1909 until
the start of the Cold War in 1949.


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Anonymous bullies target famous Cornish Hotel, increasing local media interest!

Nobody likes a bigot. The recent anti religious rantings of Pastor Terry Jones, on the anniversary of 9/11, attests to this. His words and threats were reviled by good people and faiths the world over.

But an anonymous bigot is a different breed of creature altogether.

Too cowardly to openly voice their diatribes, too wretched to sign a name to their hateful cant.

Sadly, the internet can often be abused by those who bare ill will. Victims for slander can be easily targeted by cowards.

With these thoughts in mind, and because of the ongoing vitriolic attacks, by bigots, towards a tourist hotel and many people resident in the small town of Tintagel in Cornwall, our media company is restating our support.

Our own Director of Publishing, Duncan Williams, who was himself brought up in the North Cornwall area, is said to be appalled by the lies and accusations that are set to 'damage Tintagel' irreparably if left unchallenged.

"What good is achieved for this town?" says our publisher. "Particularly during a period of recession, by badmouthing its largest hotel? What gain is there for the community?"

Hysterical internet postings, over many weeks now, have centred upon John Mappin, his Kazakhstan born wife, Irina, and a resident painter named Ted Stourton, who are each co-owners of Tintagel's famous Camelot Castle Hotel.

John says; "At Camelot Castle we have a business policy of trying to use local Tintagel traders and to buy locally wherever possible. We are all learning this week what it might mean to our village to lose an important business. Once the heart of a village dies it can be very hard to breath life back into it."

However, the roots of this controversy seem to centre around the Mappin's involvement in the mysterious Scientology 'religion'. Itself often accused of bullying tactics towards its own members.

Unrelenting web outbursts and a cruel hate campaign by email, attacking the owners of the clifftop resort, their friends, business associates, and even their foreign employees, have all been swamping the internet for weeks now. It is clearly having an adverse effect on business.

"Bigotry like this is totally unacceptable," insists Duncan Williams. His independent news company has even been accused, quite wrongly, of 'bribery by the American Church' in order to support their corner in print. "There is no prejudicial bias in any of our publications. It goes against everything I believe in."

Williams, whose grandfather was a local C of E vicar, goes on to say; "Cornwall has always been a place where all kinds of people are welcomed, from all walks of life, wherever they are from and whatever their faith may happen to be - and no matter how eccentric it might seem to others..."

It would be a sad day, indeed, if this were ever to change. A sad day for Tintagel. And a sad day for Cornwall.

"Standing up to bullies is never easy," laments John Mappin.

Standing up to an anonymous bully, perhaps harder still.

But, as anyone working in the media knows only too well; words that can be used to hurt can equally be used, with truth and time, to heal.

And all bullies and bigots must, and will, be brought to heel.


# # #

More information can be found at;
http://www.whyweprotest.net
http://www.camelotcastle.com

# # #


Independent News Ltd. - Established publisher of UK regional newspapers and magazines. Offering distribution and marketing opportunities in key locations throughout Great Britain.
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CityLife : Now a Big Spark in Belfast and Portsmouth

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Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy

Billionaire Paul Allen has taken his friend Bill Gates up on his challenge to publicly pledge the majority of his wealth to philanthropy.

Paul G. Allen, who is 57, said today that he plans to leave the majority of his $13 billion estate to philanthropy to continue the work of his foundation and to fund scientific research. It was also a way of marking the 20th anniversary of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which he started in 1990 with his sister, Jo Lynn Allen, and has since given 3,000 grants totaling about $400 million.

A month ago, Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett began a public campaign to encourage other billionaires to make a "Giving Pledge," and donate at least half of their wealth to charity.

Allen said he has planned to do that for many years, but he had not gone public with his intentions until now.

"He and Bill have talked about this and he thinks it's a good idea to let people know," said David Postman, a spokesman for Allen at Vulcan. "He hopes that maybe it spurs other people to give and he's hoping there will be good things that come of it."

Allen said he wanted to make it clear that his philanthropic efforts "will continue after my lifetime," he said in a statement. "As our philanthropy continues in the years ahead, we will look for new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of future generations."

This year Forbes ranked Allen as the world's 37th richest person with a fortune estimated at $13.5 billion.

His total giving over the years has reached about $1 billion, reflecting eclectic interests in science, the arts and education, including nonprofits he founded: the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Experience Music Project.

While Gates' charity has become global in size and ambition, Allen's has remained mostly local and personal.

"Since the beginning, our philanthropy has been focused in the Pacific Northwest, where I live and work," Allen said. "I'm proud to have helped fund great work done by non-profit groups throughout the region. But there's always more to do."

Allen has battled non-Hodgkin's lymphoma since his diagnosis last fall. He has finished chemotherapy treatments and has been been doing well, Postman said. Allen traveled to Africa recently, and has been "running businesses as much as he ever has. He stays intimately involved in the things he cares about."

Microsoft founders and future billionaires Bill Gates, left, and Paul Allen in Bellevue in 1981, when the company employed less than 100 people.

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation also announced $3.9 million in funding to 41 nonprofit organizations in the Pacific Northwest, focused largely on arts and culture.

The foundation gave Anniversary grants of $20,000 each to five individual founders of nonprofits, recognized as "change agents who created organizations that continue to deliver high impact programs for local communities."

The recipients are Rachel Bristol, founder and CEO of Oregon Food Bank; Bridget Cooke, founder and executive director of Adelante Mujeres in Forest Grove, Ore.; Jeanne Harmon, founder and executive director of the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession in Tacoma; Myra Platt and Jane Jones, founders of Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle; and Ken Stuart, founder and president of Seattle Biomedical Research Institute.

SOURCE: TED S. WARREN/ASSOCIATED PRESS/SEATTLE TIMES

Latest news

Latest news

From the darker side of Grub Street to the lighter side of positive publishing: Profile of a Media Career...

Duncan Williams, tabloid dirt digger turned positive media guru : An article by Liz Hunter for theMediaNet.org

Duncan Williams has seen the very worst of the media world. Working as a tabloid ‘dirt-digger’ in the late 90s he spent his days seeking out celebrity stories in a culture where bribery, blackmail and stealing rubbish was the norm. Even born again Christian Jonathan Aitken once phoned to call him "a lying, underhanded s++t!." Now, though, Duncan owns his own ethical publishing company with a keen vision of building up struggling local and regional titles, and helping them to keep giving a voice to communities who are often drowned out in the noise of globalisation. He deliberately employs a proportion of ex-offenders and those recovering from addiction - and insists on a strongly positive editorial policy. In a nightmare market, the company is going from strength to strength. So how did he get from one to the other?

Duncan’s first contact with the media was through editing his school magazine, which he quickly renamed Bronco after a notorious brand of toilet roll. Writing gave him and his rebellious school friends a chance to let off steam, and he was hooked. At age 17 he moved from the West Country to London to attend film school, and went on to have a career in new media and film advertising throughout the 90s boom years. It was a destructive environment, with a heavy drinking culture, but even then Duncan says “writing was really a form of prayer, a way of getting in touch with my real myself when I couldn’t always express things well verbally".

A move into print at the end of the decade proved lucrative - whilst selling advertising for a series of high profile London magazine titles, Duncan realised that the real money was in sensationalist news and set himself up as a freelance investigator for all the major tabloids.

Kept on retainer, he would be given a brief by an editor and set about finding, or creating, a story about them. One well read middle England title, he recalls, would particularly like tittle tattle about society women and would pay very handsomely for insider gossip. It’s wasn’t just journalists that are paid by the papers - behind the staff whose names appear on by-lines there is a huge network of contacts receiving a monthly fee for feeding in stories, from celebrities’ close 'friends' to hairdressers and even doctors. It was not unusual to see suitcases of cash changing hands. Duncan had regular dealings with ‘Benji the Binman’ who made his fortune hunting for scandal in rubbish, and would also employ covert surveillance. Even if all that failed it didn’t mean the story was dead. “I clearly remember one day seeing a front cover of renown Sunday tabloid, a story about Robbie Williams, and knowing that 90% of it was distorted from fact, because I had engineered most of these embellishments. Robbie went on to sue and win a large out of court settlement, but most of the time, for the papers, it was worth it”. As several recent revelations about tabloid reporting practice confirm, he doesn’t think much has changed.

"Today, one rewarding amend for me, " says Duncan. " Is that I am able to commission the very celebrity targets of my past life to write positive pieces for my own publications. Obviously, celebrities have feelings too... and fortunately forgiveness is often one of them!"

Duncan says that there was no blinding light epiphany for him, just a realisation over several years that his life had “bottomed out”. He sought help with his heavy drinking and excessive lifestyle, and became a committed Catholic Christian. Not long after he made the decision to use all the money he had made to set up his own independent news company. With the support of some old tabloid colleagues, angel investors and some big hearted celebrities, this step forward seems to have worked out.

Duncan thinks it’s the most exciting time to be in papers, and that the laments over the death of journalism are misguided. Change is inevitable, but not disastrous, and can be a chance for good. There are huge opportunities for those who want to be influential people of integrity. He was able to buy shares in several large media companies after the price had dropped by 90% last year and is now on the board of five of these; “There are huge opportunities for those who want to be influential people of integrity. The digital revolution will eventually provide far more readers for local titles once they’ve embraced new platforms; Things like Kindle and the iPad provide an amazing way to get positive, ethical stories out there, and we’re showing that there is an audience for it.”

The titles owned by Duncan, and his group of positive independent news companies, are trying to make a stand against the “propaganda of negativity” that he thinks so shapes our thinking. Like many of us, and even having seen the very darkest side to the media, he passionately believes it can be a force for good.



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