Graphic to get modern press house

Spread. April 19/08

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) will by May next year inaugurate a $10 million modern press house.
The press house, which is currently at the foundation stage, will be the first one-stop press house in West Africa with modern colour printing equipment with the capacity to print both newspapers and magazines on commercial basis.
This was made known by the Managing Director of GCGL, Mr Ibrahim Awal, when some members of the National Media Commission (NMC) paid a working visit to the company yesterday.
Mr Awal said on completion of the facility, it would be in the position to print half of the Daily Graphic and its sister papers in colour in response to customer demand.
He said the press house would, among other things, also provide commercial colour printing to companies and private entities as a means of generating more revenue.
He assured the NMC that with the upcoming 2008 elections, the company as a state-owned media organisation, was going to be fair and objective in all of its reportage.
He said one major project that the company was aiming at and which would further ensure that the company was fair and balanced in its reportage, was the establishment of a radio station that would further complement the work of the seven newspapers of the company and called on the commission to assist it in achieving its dream.
The MD said the dream of establishing a multi-media broadcast company, which had been on the drawing board of the company for sometime now, would be a good asset especially during election periods.
Enumerating some of the challenges that the company was facing, the MD mentioned the cost of news print, saying that although the cost was skyrocketing the company in response to its social responsibility still sold its papers at 50Gp to ensure that they were affordable.
He also mentioned the escalating cost of fuel, saying that it was affecting the company in its distribution of the newspapers across the country.
The Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, gave the assurance that the paper would endeavour to give a fair and balance reportage to all the presidential aspirants and their various political parties in the upcoming 2008 elections.
The members of the commission commended the GCGL for the work that it was doing in terms of educating the populace through its news reportage.
They, however, called on the company not to be complacent with its achievement but strive and achieve what it had set out to achieve.
Members of the commission promised to assist the company in achieving its dream of becoming a multi-media house.
The members — who included Rev. (Dr) Fred Deegbe of the Christian Council, Mr Nicholas Kodzo Akyire of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, Miss Lucy Brown of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Kweku Rockson of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and Mr Perry Ofosu of the Institute of Public Relations — were later taken round the company’s facilities.