News International pays £30m to end Johnston Press contract

News International said that the termination was made to bring printing in-house at its Broxbourne, Knowsley and Glasgow Eurocentral plants, which have available capacity. It said that moving print work to its in-house plants, run by Newsprinters, was a more efficient way of printing titles.

It is unclear when the contracts at both Johnston Press’ Dinnington and Portsmouth facilities will cease, but the company confirmed that no redundancies were being made as a result of the termination.

The company will focus on generating new work at the two relieved plants with immediate effect. It said that it would enter into a new long-term printing contract with News International at its Dinnington plant, although details of the work have not been released.

It is understood that Johnston Press will use the £30m to reduce some of its £350m debts.

A spokesperson for Johnston Press said: "The company produced the News International work on premium quality equipment so it should be able to find suitable work to fill the available capacity. That is what it is focusing on now."

News International has suffered falling sales since the closure of the News of the World last July, which had a maximum circulation of 2.7m.

Its replacement, the Sunday edition of the Sun, recorded a circulation of 3.2m in March, a month after it launched, but recent ABC figures reveal that sales dropped by 1m in May.