or more likely, the person who goes through stories converting measurements to imperial is on holiday.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004320285,00.html

I'm surprised that you posted that, Andy.

Hardly earth-shattering is it?

I thought it was quite exceptional actually.. I don't remember ever seeing a metric-only article in the Sun, especially one which could easily have been converted to feet. Normally the Sun converts everything to imperial even when the quotes were metric.

The Sun claims the largest readership in the UK.
They have a good marketing department.

Any changes to original texts would be because they want to please the audience - ie the readers.

This is where they differ from big business - who want to please politicians.

Especially EU ones.

Does the Sun normally convert measurements to imperial even if they are inside a quotation?

Yes - the Sun will always convert to imperial wherever possible, because Rupert Murdoch is fiercely anti-EU and anti anything perceived to be related to it.

Certainly 99.9% of the time a 5-metre shark would be converted to a 15-foot shark

16ft, you mean.

<<<because Rupert Murdoch is fiercely anti-EU and anti anything perceived to be related to it.
>>>

Erm , coming from a country that has (more or less) GONE metric.

I sort of see your point though, although I believe it to be misguided