Ron Dixon (Brookside)
Ronald William "Ron" Dixon is a fictional character in the British soap opera, played by Vince Earl from 1990 until the final episode in 2003, during which time he was involved in several major storylines including his marriage to DD, being charged with murder and his feud with Jimmy Corkhill. His final words on the programme were to tell Jimmy. Ron and DD arrived in Brookside Close during the autumn of 1990 with their three children, but their marriage collapsed during 1993 due to Ron's affair with Bev McLoughlin. In December 1993 she gave birth to a son called Josh, but they split up soon afterwards when she revealed that Josh wasn't his son, he was Ron's grandson and the son of Ron's son Mike. In early November of that year, at the wedding of neighbour Frank Rogers to Bev's sister Lyn Matthews, Ron and DD got into an argument after Bev turned up. Frank took Tony in the wedding car to the reception to get him away from his warring parents. During the journey, Frank crashed after he swerved to avoid an oncoming car, being driven recklessly by neighbour Jimmy Corkhill.
Frank died soon after arriving at the hospital and Tony was left in a coma with a fractured skull. At Frank's funeral, Ron learnt that Frank's post mortem had included a blood test which showed him to be over the drink-drive limit, although the full truth about the crash was still three months away from being revealed. One morning at the beginning of December 1993, Tony opened his eyes for a few minutes while Ron was visiting him in hospital. Ron was ecstatic by what he saw and was confident that Tony would be out of hospital in time for Christmas. However, when Ron returned to the hospital hours the doctor informed Ron that Tony was in a persistent vegetative state and was unlikely to recover. Ron was determined to help Tony recover, at whatever cost, wanting to find a medical cure which he had heard was possible for coma victims at specialist clinics in America, while DD was determined for him to be cured at Lourdes, which non-Catholic Ron did not think was possible. A guilt-ridden Jimmy helped out with endless fundraising efforts, with nobody else knowing that he had caused the accident.
Tony contracted pneumonia and had to stay in hospital over Christmas, showed no further signs of improvement. In January 1994, Ron found him being given the last rites. DD explained that Tony was being giving the last rites at her request, which outraged Ron, still determined that a medical cure could be found. Tony's doctor, who had discussed the situation with DD persuaded Ron that there was no chance of Tony regaining consciousness, Ron soon accepted that Tony would never recover. Ron began talking of the possibility of having Tony's treatment withdrawn and allowing him to die, although DD was still determined that Tony might still recover if he was taken to Lourdes though she had accepted that there was no medical cure. Ron gave DD permission to take Tony to Lourdes in hope of curing him, despite not believing that Tony could be cured this way, but Tony died in hospital just before DD and Jackie Corkhill were due to take him to Lourdes. Jimmy broke down at Tony's funeral, unable to contain his guilt any longer, confessed to Ron at the graveside that he was driving the other car while high on cocaine.
Ron married his former girlfriend Anthea Brindley, who had revealed to him that he was the father of her daughter Megan, by now in her thirties. In December 2000, only a few days before Christmas, his life was hit by another tragedy when his son Mike was badly injured in a car crash caused by neighbour Tim O'Leary, who had fled the scene after crashing the stolen car that he had been driving. Mike was unable to walk for six months. In May 2001, after a succession of robberies at his house, Ron snapped and bought a gun off Sotto, an acquaintance of neighbour Tim O'Leary, which he used on a burglar who had entered his house; the burglar was the brother of his daughter Jacqui's boyfriend, Robbie. Ron did not realise. Robbie turned out to be the burglar. Ron was charged with his murder, he was released on bail but following his trial in December 2001 he was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to nine months in prison. He was freed four months later. After the verdict, Anthea left. In 2003, Ron married Bev and in the final episode, Ron and Josh moved away from the close.
His final words on the programme were telling Jimmy. Throughout his time on Brookside Close, Ron Dixon was an unpopular man. Ron discovers in 1995 that he has a daughter that he never knew about, but he kept her identity a secret, as she could have been Jimmy's daughter, although a DNA paternity test was never given, he had many petty feuds with neighbour Max Farnham. Like many of the neighbours, he despised drug dealer Jack Michaelson and was assaulted by him in 2003. Since Jimmy was involved in the death of his son, he had an ongoing feud with him; the two however reconciled when Ron's son Mike and Jimmy's daughter Lindsey were arrested in Bangkok after drugs are planted in Lindsay's daughter's teddy bear. On, Ron
Soap opera
A soap opera is an ongoing drama serial on television or radio, featuring the lives of many characters and their emotional relationships. The term soap opera originated from radio dramas being sponsored by soap manufacturers. BBC Radio's The Archers, first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera; the first serial considered to be a "soap opera" was Painted Dreams, which debuted on October 20, 1930 on Chicago radio station WGN. Early radio series such as Painted Dreams were broadcast in weekday daytime slots five days a week. Most of the listeners would be housewives. Thus, the shows were consumed by a predominantly female audience; the first nationally broadcast radio soap opera was Clara, Lu, Em, which aired on the NBC Blue Network at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time on January 27, 1931. A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative.
Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode". In 2012, Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Lloyd wrote of daily dramas, "Although melodramatically eventful, soap operas such as this have a luxury of space that makes them seem more naturalistic. You spend more time with the minor characters. An individual episode of a soap opera will switch between several different concurrent narrative threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run independent to each other; each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines, but not always all of them. In daytime serials and those that are broadcast each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but not all of a week's worth of episodes. Soap operas bring all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time; when one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development.
Soap opera episodes end on some sort of cliffhanger, the season finale ends in the same way, only to be resolved when the show returns for the start of a new yearly broadcast. Evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more to feature the entire cast in each episode, to represent all current storylines in each episode. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger. In 1976, Time magazine described American daytime television as "TV's richest market," noting the loyalty of the soap opera fan base and the expansion of several half-hour series into hour-long broadcasts in order to maximize ad revenues; the article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. The issue's cover notably featured its first daytime soap stars, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives, a married couple whose onscreen and real-life romance was covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press at large.
The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas and moral conflicts. Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, or focus on a large extended family; the storylines follow personal relationships of these characters. "Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as'chance happenings, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.'" These elements may be found from EastEnders to Dallas. Due to the prominence of English-language television, most soap-operas are English. However, several South African soap operas started incorporating a multi-language format, the most prominent being 7de Laan, which incorporates Afrikaans, English and several other Bantu languages which make up the 11 Official Languages of South Africa. In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are attractive, seductive and wealthy.
Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, are set in working class environments. Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements affectionate comic stereotypes such as the gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them; this diverges from US soap operas. UK soap operas make a claim to presenting "reality
George Christopher
George Christopher was a Greek-American politician, the 34th Mayor of San Francisco, serving in that office from January 1956 until January 1964. He is to date the last Republican to be elected mayor of San Francisco. Born George Christopheles in Arcadia, the son of James and Mary Christopheles, he and his family emigrated to the United States in 1910 and settled in San Francisco's South of Market Street neighborhood known as "Greektown", when Christopher was two years old. Christopher left school at the age of fourteen when his father James became ill, he became sole support of his family, he became a copy boy at the San Francisco Examiner. While working, he attended night classes at Golden Gate College and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting. After becoming a citizen of the United States in 1930, Christopheles changed his last name to Christopher. After college, Christopher worked for numerous small firms keeping their accounts and bought out a small dairy on Fillmore Street, which became the Christopher Dairy.
In 1935, he married Tula Sarantitis. Regarded as a moderate Republican, Christopher began his political career in 1945 when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Christopher ran for Mayor in 1951 and lost by fewer than 3,000 votes to incumbent mayor Elmer Robinson. In November 1955, Christopher again sought the post of mayor, he won in a landslide over Democrat George Reilly. During his administration, San Francisco hosted the 1956 Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace, in which the party renominated incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower as its candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Christopher was re-elected in 1959 for a second term. Christopher was instrumental in bringing the New York Giants baseball team to San Francisco in 1958 and in securing the funding to build Candlestick Park on the abandoned lands of Sunset Scavenger on Candlestick Point, his administration has been credited with the building of the Brooks Hall, twelve new schools, seventeen firehouses, six public swimming pools, the five-story Fifth and Mission and the underground Civic Center garages.
Christopher was known for his strong stand on civil rights. He gained worldwide headlines offering his home to Willie Mays after it was reported that a Forest Hill realtor had refused to sell to Mays. Christopher lobbied and succeeded in opening mental health and alcohol treatment centers under city funding. Christopher presided over the redevelopment of major portions of city and private lands, labeled slums, some not without controversy. Another controversial issue was the loss of the historic Fox Theatre movie palace on Market Street at Polk Street. In early 1963, the owners of the Fox closed the theatre, offered it for sale to the city of San Francisco for $1,050,000. Mayor Christopher turned this down, demolition of the Fox proceeded. Theatre historians worldwide agree that the San Francisco Fox was one of the most magnificent movie palaces constructed. Movie palace fans still mourn the theatre's loss over a half century longer than the building existed. In Christopher's second term, the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities held hearings in the City Hall supervisor's chambers.
A large group of students and active citizens were fire-hosed down the marble steps inside City Hall rotunda by the San Francisco Police Department when they protested their exclusion from admission to committee hearings. Christopher told the Federal Government they were no longer welcome in city buildings, but he sided with the committee and spoke for the propaganda newsreel-style film made by the committee about the event titled, Operation Abolition, that blamed Communists for the so-called City Hall riot of May 13, 1960. Christopher was criticized for endorsing the film while saying that "at least 90% of the students were not organized by the Communists."In 1958, Christopher was defeated in the Republican primary for U. S. Senate by Governor Goodwin Knight. In 1962, when Richard Nixon ran for governor, Christopher ran for lieutenant governor, losing to incumbent Democrat Glenn Anderson, he lost the June 8, 1966 Republican primary for Governor of California to former actor and conservative icon Ronald Reagan, who won with 77 percent of the vote.
Historian Geoffrey Kabaservice points out that a Drew Pearson column that highlighted a 1940 arrest of Christopher for buying and selling underpriced milk, a story fed to Pearson by the staff of incumbent governor Pat Brown, Christopher's underwhelming response to that column contributed to the loss. Dorsey, George. Christopher of San Francisco. New York: MacMillan Company. LCCN 62013596. Gladys Hansen. "George Christopher". Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. Archived from the original on July 27, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-07. Oral history interview on California politics
Teacher
A teacher is a person who helps others to acquire knowledge, competences or values. Informally the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone. In some countries, teaching young people of school age may be carried out in an informal setting, such as within the family, rather than in a formal setting such as a school or college; some other professions may involve a significant amount of teaching. In most countries, formal teaching of students is carried out by paid professional teachers; this article focuses on those who are employed, as their main role, to teach others in a formal education context, such as at a school or other place of initial formal education or training. A teacher's role may vary among cultures. Teachers may provide instruction in literacy and numeracy, craftsmanship or vocational training, the arts, civics, community roles, or life skills. Formal teaching tasks include preparing lessons according to agreed curricula, giving lessons, assessing pupil progress. A teacher's professional duties may extend beyond formal teaching.
Outside of the classroom teachers may accompany students on field trips, supervise study halls, help with the organization of school functions, serve as supervisors for extracurricular activities. In some education systems, teachers may have responsibility for student discipline. Teaching is a complex activity; this is in part because teaching is a social practice, that takes place in a specific context and therefore reflects the values of that specific context. Factors that influence what is expected of teachers include history and tradition, social views about the purpose of education, accepted theories about learning, etc; the competencies required by a teacher are affected by the different ways in which the role is understood around the world. Broadly, there seem to be four models: the teacher as manager of instruction; the OECD has argued that it is necessary to develop a shared definition of the skills and knowledge required by teachers, in order to guide teachers' career-long education and professional development.
Some evidence-based international discussions have tried to reach such a common understanding. For example, the European Union has identified three broad areas of competences that teachers require: Working with others Working with knowledge and information, Working in and with society. Scholarly consensus is emerging that what is required of teachers can be grouped under three headings: knowledge craft skills and dispositions, it has been found that teachers who showed enthusiasm towards the course materials and students can create a positive learning experience. These teachers do not teach by rote but attempt to find new invigoration for the course materials on a daily basis. One of the challenges facing teachers is that they may have covered a curriculum until they begin to feel bored with the subject, their attitude may in turn bore the students. Students who had enthusiastic teachers tend to rate them higher than teachers who didn't show much enthusiasm for the course materials. Teachers that exhibit enthusiasm can lead to students who are more to be engaged, interested and curious about learning the subject matter.
Recent research has found a correlation between teacher enthusiasm and students' intrinsic motivation to learn and vitality in the classroom. Controlled, experimental studies exploring intrinsic motivation of college students has shown that nonverbal expressions of enthusiasm, such as demonstrative gesturing, dramatic movements which are varied, emotional facial expressions, result in college students reporting higher levels of intrinsic motivation to learn, but while a teacher's enthusiasm has been shown to improve motivation and increase task engagement, it does not improve learning outcomes or memory for the material. There are various mechanisms by which teacher enthusiasm may facilitate higher levels of intrinsic motivation. Teacher enthusiasm may contribute to a classroom atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm which feeds student interest and excitement in learning the subject matter. Enthusiastic teachers may lead to students becoming more self-determined in their own learning process; the concept of mere exposure indicates that the teacher's enthusiasm may contribute to the student's expectations about intrinsic motivation in the context of learning.
Enthusiasm may act as a "motivational embellishment", increasing a student's interest by the variety and surprise of the enthusiastic teacher's presentation of the material. The concept of emotional contagion, may apply. Research shows that student motivation and attitudes towards school are linked to student-teacher relationships. Enthusiastic teachers are good at creating beneficial relations with their students, their ability to create effective learning environments that foster student achievement depends on the kind of relationship they build with their students. Useful teacher-to-studen
Blaydon-on-Tyne
Blaydon is a town in the North East of England in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead - in County Durham. Blaydon, neighbouring Winlaton, which Blaydon is now contiguous with, form the postal town of Blaydon-on-Tyne; the Blaydon/Winlaton resident population in 2011 was 13,896. Between 1894 and 1974, Blaydon was an urban district which extended inland from the Tyne along the River Derwent for ten miles, included the mining communities of Chopwell and High Spen, the villages of Rowlands Gill, Blackhall Mill, Winlaton Mill and Stella, as well as Blaydon and Winlaton. During its existence, the Urban District's fourteen and a half square miles constituted the second largest administrative district by area, on Tyneside, after Newcastle upon Tyne; the town of Blaydon is an industrial area and is not more than two centuries old. Indeed, in the 1760s there was little here but a few cottages. In the latter part of the same century a smelting works was set up from which sprang the industrial growth of the area.
Though the town itself has a short history there has been activity in the area for many centuries. The earliest recorded evidence of human activity at Blaydon is a Neolithic polished stone axe found in the early 20th century. Finds and structures from prehistoric periods include a bronze spearhead and log-boat, both recovered from the River Tyne in the 19th century. A number of Bronze Age cists are recorded from several others from Bewes Hill. Little is recorded of medieval Blaydon, which appears to have been based upon the modern farm sites of High and Low Shibdon; the Blaydon Burn Belts Corn Mill, part of a row of 5 or 6 water corn mills stretching from Brockwell Wood to the River Tyne is known to have been present by the early 17th century, suggesting a healthy population at that time. It is that, as well as farming, many industrial activities such as mining and quarrying had begun in the medieval and post-medieval periods, well before the industrial period of the 18th to 20th centuries when Blaydon became an important industrial centre.
Known as the Battle of Newburn or Newburn Ford, this unknown battle has been elevated in importance by English Heritage. On 28 August 1640, 20,000 Scots defeated 5,500 English soldiers who were defending the ford over the Tyne four miles west of Newcastle; the Scots had been provoked by Charles I, who had imposed bishops and a foreign prayer book on their church. The Scots army, led by Alexander Leslie, fought its way to Newcastle and occupied the city for a year before Charles I paid it £200,000 to depart; the battle brought to an end the so-called'Eleven Years of Tyranny' by forcing Charles to recall Parliament. This was the last battle in Britain to feature the use of archers; the stimulus for industry at Blaydon and Blaydon burn, as elsewhere in the region, was the growth in coal mining and the coal trade from the early 18th century, when the Hazard and Speculation pits were established at Low Shibdon linked to the Tyne by wagonways. The 18th century Blaydon Main Colliery was reopened in the mid-19th century and worked until 1921.
Other pits and associated features included Blaydon Burn Colliery, Freehold pit and the Blaydonburn wagonway. Industries supported by the coal trade included chemical works, bottle works, sanitary pipe works, lampblack works, an ironworks, a smithy and brickworks - Cowen's Upper and Lower Brickworks were established in 1730 and were associated with a variety of features including a clay drift mine and coal/clay drops; the Lower works remains in operation. Blaydon Burn Coke Ovens of 19th-century origin, were replaced in the 1930s by Priestman Ottovale Coke and Tar Works, the first in the world to produce petrol from coal known as Blaydon Benzole. In addition to the workers’ housing developments associated with industrialisation, a number of grand residences were constructed for industrialists in the area, such as Blaydon Burn House, home of Joseph Cowen, owner of the brickworks; the remains of Old Dockendale Hall, an earlier grand residence of 17th century or earlier construction, was destroyed when the coke and tar works was built at Blaydon Burn.
In the 1930s, pupils at the now demolished Blaydon Intermediate School, under the leadership of English teacher Mr Elliott and art teacher Mr Boyce developed a technique for producing hardback books. Their productions were respected and favourably compared to other successful private printing presses of the time. In one volume produced by the school in 1935, entitled "Songs of Enchantment", the pupils were successful in convincing the famous poet Walter de la Mare to write a foreword in which he praised their enterprise and efforts; the post war era of the late 40s and 50s saw a rapid rise in demand for electricity and, in the North East, the extension of existing and construction of a number of new power stations was seen as a key part of the solution. For the Blaydon area, this meant the arrival of a new power station at Stella Haugh, known as the South Stella Power Station, which helped to meet the energy demands of the North East until its closure in 1991, it was demolished in 1992. The House of Commons constituency seat of Blaydon is held by MP Liz Twist.
The area has traditionally been a Labour stronghold and has been held by the Labour Party since 1935. The Labour candidate David Anderson received 51.5% of the vote in 2005, with the Liberal Democrat candidate, Peter Maughan, second at 37.9%. Blaydon ward elects three councillors to Gateshead Council; as of the May 2007 election, they are Kathryn Ferdinand and Steve Ronchetti. Modern Blaydon stands close to the Tyne with the A695, a key road from Gateshead to Hexham, passi
Paul Collins (Brookside)
Paul Collins was a character in Brookside played by Jim Wiggins between 1982 and 1990. The Collins family moved into Brookside Close during the first episode, having bought Number 8. From the start, there was conflict between the middle-class Collins family and the working-class Grants. Upon arrival at Number 8, they found house had been vandalised by Damon Grant and his friends, somebody had stolen the toilet. An indignant Paul confronted Bobby Grant. Damon denied stealing the toilet. Unlike the Grant family, who had come from a run-down council estate to live on Brookside Close, the Collins family had lived in a large, comfortable house on The Wirral, but were forced to downsize to something much smaller after Paul was made redundant. In the early days of Brookside, Paul was unemployed and storylines centred on the family's struggle to cope with their new humbler surroundings and financial hardship, along with Paul's discomfort at having to sign on alongside people he once looked down on. Paul's daughter Lucy resented her father for their reduced circumstances after she was forced to swap her public school for the local comprehensive, where her posh accent and privileged background saw her become the victim of bullying.
Paul found another job, the family's financial situation improved for a while. However, in 1986 he was again made redundant; this time he decided to take early retirement rather than face the humiliation of having to sign on again. Paul was a conservative and principled man. However, he was never the most tactful or sensitive of people, antagonised his neighbours with his high-handed and snobbish attitude towards them. Paul described himself as the'boss of the Collins household', yet in reality he wife Annabelle and daughter Lucy got their way. Having once served as a captain in the British army, he struggled to come to terms with his son Gordon's sexuality as well as his daughter Lucy's promiscuity. However, Paul could be a kind and generous man. Prior to losing his job in 1982 and again in 1986, Paul had worked as a production manager for a large petrochemical firm. There was a 13-year age gap between Annabelle, with Wiggins being 60 when he took the role. Paul was optimistic that the family would be back in their former lavish circumstances soon using phrases like'this time next year we'll be back in the Wirral'.
Following Doreen Sloane's death from cancer, the entire Collins family were written out of Brookside in the summer of 1990, moving to the Lake District to help look after Annabelle's frail mother and her new husband Gerald Fallon. At the time of their departure, the Collins were one of the few original families left in the soap, the only household to have survived since the programme started. By the 1990s the dynamic of Brookside was changing and the show was moving away from the'gritty realism' that had defined its early years through families such as the Grants and the Collinses
Newsquest
Newsquest Media Group Ltd. is the second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers in the United Kingdom. It has 205 brands across the UK, publishing online and in print and reaches 28 million visitors a month online and 6.5 million readers a week in print. Based in London, Newsquest employs a total of more than 5,500 people across the UK, it has a specialist arm that publishes both commercial and business-to-business titles such as Insurance Times, The Strad, Boxing News. Newsquest was founded in 1995 when US private equity partnership Kohlberg Kravis Roberts financed a £210 million management buy-out of the Reed Regional Newspapers group of British papers from Reed Elsevier. In 1996 Newsquest swapped its Yorkshire titles for Johnston Press’s Bury, Lancashire area titles and £9.25 million, sold some of its titles in the English Midlands to Midland Independent Newspapers and bought the Westminster Press local newspapers group for £12.3 million from Pearson, owner of Penguin Books and the Financial Times, resulting in Newsquest doubling in size.
The next year it floated on the London Stock Exchange realising a market capitalisation of £500 million. In 1998, Newsquest added the Sussex-based Contact-a-Car, the London Property Weekly titles, two titles in the North West of England, three Review Group titles in Hertfordshire. In 1999, The US Gannett media group's newly formed UK subsidiary paid £922 million for Newsquest and took on the company’s debt. In 2000, Gannett paid £525 million for Southampton-based News Communications and Media’s South Coast dailies and weeklies – and its Southernprint magazine printing division – to add to Newsquest’s portfolio, it picked up the regional newspapers business – outside Manchester – of the Guardian Media Group, a takeover that the Competition Commission cleared as there was'no overlap, in the companies' circulation areas. In 2001, Newsquest bought Surrey and Sussex Publishing and Horley Publishing, publishers of Gatwick Life and Horley Life and the Dimbleby Newspaper Group’s nine Greater London weeklies, including the Richmond and Twickenham Times for a reported £8 million.
In 2003, Gannett UK paid £216 million for the Scottish Media Group’s three newspapers – Glasgow’s Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times – 11 specialist consumer and business-to-business magazines and an online advertising and content business. The Competition Commission again cleared it. In 2005, Newsquest’s Exchange Enterprises division paid £50.25 million for Exchange and Mart and Auto Exchange from United Advertising Publications after the small ads weeklies' publisher's parent, United Business Media, decided to concentrate on its'core activities'. Newsquest owned the named Brentford and Isleworth Times known as the Hounslow and Brentford Times, which closed in 2010. On 11 December 2006, Gannett denied having plans to sell Newsquest, contradicting a story in the previous day's Sunday Express that claimed the media giant was carrying out a company review with the Credit Suisse investment bank, could sell Newsquest for up to £1.5bn. Gannett had replied by saying: "There is no truth in the report.
Newsquest is a valuable part of the Gannett company."On 2 July 2007, in his blog on The Guardian’s website, media analyst Roy Greenslade revealed the content of a Newsquest company memo which acknowledged that its staff pension scheme was £65 million in deficit. Members of the company’s workforce were given the options of increasing their contributions to keep the same final salary scheme, paying in less for an inferior version, opting for a ‘money purchase’ scheme; the company’s US parent Gannett had on 18 June reported that revenues from its newspapers and broadcasting had fallen – but, the US press release said: ‘Newsquest experienced higher national advertising revenue’. It was "hardly a picture of a company suffering from commented Greenslade. On 8 August 2007 Newsquest started offering users of its Greater London titles' websites downloadable supermarket coupons, which could be redeemed at supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons for money off a range of goods from cranberry products to canned pet food.
Newsquest’s regional digital and display manager Eddie Embleton was "very excited by the prospects that this new initiative presenusers An online and offline campaign has been prepared to drive our readers and users directly to the appropriate coupon galleries, with the print element aimed at driving traffic to our website and turning our readers into users." The company hoped to "launch the gallery across the whole of the Newsquest network", the press release added. In March 2012, The Guardian reported the results of an indicative ballot held by the National Union of Journalists among its members at Newsquest, which found that more than 80% were prepared to strike if they were not given a pay rise within the year. In April 2014, following CEO/Chairman Paul Davidson's retirement, Henry Faure Walker was appointed CEO at Newsquest. In November 2014 began publication of The National, a Scottish daily newspaper that support Scottish independence. On 26 May 2015, Newsquest announced that it had acquired Romanes Media Group, a local news publishing business operating in Scotland and Northern Ireland, for an undisclosed sum.
The Romanes newspaper portfolio comprises one daily, 19 weekly paid-fors and nine weekly frees, associated websites, the company employs 270 staff. On 28 April 2016, Newsquest announced that the latest comScore figures showed that users spend more time per month on Newsquest sites than any other regional press group. Newsquest has a digital audience of 28 million un
