Bennett threw convention to the wind. ‘Petticoats, petticoats, petticoats,’ ranted one editorial. ‘There you fastidious fools, vent your mawkishness on that.’ He did all that was forbidden. Whereas other papers covered murder trials, he wrote up the murders. Others reported the stock market, he revealed financial frauds. Rivals shrank from relating the activities of high society. He described the heave of every bosom. He realized that individuals wanted not just information but entertainment. Circulation rose with each and every headline – on one occasion by 10,000 overnight. In 1840, the Herald was selling 51,000 copies daily. By comparison, The Times, with sales of no more than 30,000, looked decidedly feeble.

If Bennett changed the way news was reported, his son and successor, James Gordon Bennett Jr, changed the nature of news itself. Rather than waiting for stories to arrive, he made them happen. His debut came in 1869 when he heard that a Scottish missionary was missing in Africa. He known as in one of his top journalists, H M Stanley, and outlined his assignment. ‘I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now; and when you have gone through that draw one more thousand, and when that is spent draw another, and when that is finished, draw one more thousand, and so on – but find Livingstone!’ Thus was born one of probably the most famous rescues in history, which ended when Stanley entered an African village and uttered the words, ‘Dr Livingstone I presume?’ The Herald’s world shattering account left out numerous details, such as that Livingstone didn’t need rescuing – he gave the starving Stanley the best meal he had had in ages – and that he considered the Herald a ‘despicable newspaper’.

Such details would have spoiled the story and Bennett realized that accuracy did not necessarily make for increased sales; He also understood the importance of good ‘packaging’ – which meant doing away with unbroken columns of solid type and replacing them with eye-catching layouts, punchy headlines, and lively, easy-to-read reports, accompanied by cartoons, quizzes and competitions. This approach was adopted by other newspapers in the United States and was to turn out to be known as the ‘New Journalism’. The British press was slower to catch on, but the breakthrough came in 1896 with the launching from the Daily Mail by two brothers, Alfred and Harold Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere), Costing only a halfpenny, and packed with a host of ‘human interest’ features, it built up a circulation of over 1,5 million in just five years.

Not satisfied with this success, the Harmsworths founded the Everyday Mirror in 1903. This was even racier than the Mail, which it soon overtook. The two papers made a fortune for their owners, who in 1908 bought The Times as a sign of their growing significance, Indeed, the so-called Press Barons – besides Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere, these included the Canadian owner from the Daily Express, Lord Beaverbrook, and the proprietor from the News of the World, Lord Riddell – had turn out to be a major political force, They had no compunction about trying to mould the views of their readers, and what passed for news was often no more than propaganda, But the influence from the old-style Press Barons was to be far surpassed by that of the modern newspaper magnates, Perhaps the most powerful of these is Rupert Murdoch, head from the £4 billion conglomerate, News International.

His newspaper career started modestly in 1952 when he inherited two little Australian journals, Since then, he has built up a media empire which spans newspapers, films, publishing and television, and takes in five of the largest British newspapers, including the Sun, The Times and also the News of the World. It is a feat to make even the Bennetts struggle for words.

Belarus covers an area slightly smaller than the UK, and has no coastline. It borders Russia within the north and east, Latvia and Lithuania within the North West, Poland within the west and Ukraine in the south. Low ridges cover a lot from the country, with marshy lowlands in between. The Pripet Marshes are within the south – at 1 time Europe’s largest marsh area, they have now largely been drained for agriculture. It’s generally a low-lying nation – the highest point reaches only 345m above sea level. The Dnepr is Belarus’ main river, and it flows east out of Russia then south into Ukraine. Average winter temperatures are around the -6°C mark, occasionally falling to -8°C in the north and snow arrives in December or January and lies around until March or April. Belarus receives most of its rainfall between June and August, and warmest temperatures (l7-19°C) are experienced in July.

Primeval forest

Forest once covered the whole of Belarus, but most had been removed for farming by the 16th century. Some forest has regrown, particularly around the Pripet Marshes – it’s a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees, although silver birch dominates. The Marshes are also house to hundreds of thriving species of marsh flora. On the western border with Poland lies the Belavezhskaja Pushcha Nature Reserve, the largest surviving area of primeval mixed forest in Europe. It’s jointly managed by Belarus and Poland, and 1 of its excellent success stories has been the European bison, whose population was reduced to 40 in captivity in 1945. There are now about 1000 within the park alone, and a number of thousand spread throughout. Europe. Elk, deer, wolf, fox, otter and badger are all also found within the forest. About 21% of the population are employed in agriculture. Cattle and pigs make up 60% from the produce, while primary crops are grain, potatoes and flax, which is made into linen.

Heavy industry – truck and tractor manufacture – is concentrated in Minsk, and you will find chemical processing factories at Soligorsk. Few mineral resources mean that the country is almost totally dependent on Russia for oil and gas supplies. These supplies were hit badly when the Soviet Union broke up, and this combined with the forced abandonment of much agricultural land after the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 (the power station is in neighbouring Ukraine, and a lot from the radioactive fallout landed on Belarus) has led to hard times for the economy. Inflation was at 2000% in 1993, but new government plans are being shaped to reduce the strain.

The Soviet connection has affected the ethnic make-up of the population. Estimates suggest that 2.2 million Belarusians died in World War II – the Jewish population was almost wiped out – and more (perhaps 700,000) disappeared during Soviet purges. Russians were moved in during the 1960s to fill the gaps in the labour force, and there is still a Russian minority of 1.3 million these days. The destruction caused by World War II and also the Soviet industrialization forced numerous people to move to the cities and abandon hundreds of villages.

Within the 400 years prior to the country came under Russian control, Belarus developed its own language and culture. The name means ‘white Russia’, even though it isn’t particular whether this refers towards the peoples’ complexions or their dress. Lithuania came increasingly under the control of Poland, and when it was carved up within the 18th century, all of Belarus was absorbed into Russia. As part of Soviet Union history the Tsars wanted everybody to be Russian just as much as their Soviet successors did, and they sought to wipe out any sense of national identity.

A lot of World War I was fought on Belarusian soil, and below German occupation an independent republic was declared. It didn’t last long – in 1921 the Treaty of Riga allotted part of Belarus to Poland, and also the rest became one of the founding Soviets (councils) of the USSR. The country was overrun again during World War II – Minsk was almost completely flattened and one in four of the population was killed.

The post-war Soviet five-year plan restored much from the destruction and, with Russian immigration; Belarus became one of the most prosperous republics Soviet Union history. Nevertheless, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which hit Belarus particularly badly, helped to crystallize anti-Soviet feeling, and by 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Republic of Belarus was ready to take its place.