Business

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke has voiced his fears for the newspaper printing industry, which he said is heading into a monopoly dominated by publishers that are "no longer interested in quality journalism".

In a damning speech at last week's Trades Union Congress, Burke bemoaned the "annual cull" of print and journalism jobs by newspaper publishers whose "main concern is their share price".

Burke drew particular attention to News International (NI), which has invested £660m in three large facilities and is offering contract work, but also criticised NI's rival Trinity Mirror.

He pointed out that News International's new sites are capable of handling around 25m to 30m newspapers a day – more than double the national newspaper print run in the UK, which currently stands at 10m to 11m.

"Unite is of the view that in a matter of a few years the vast majority of national and regional newspapers' production could be in the hands of one company – News International," he warned.

His claims came just a few weeks after Trinity Mirror and Newsquest announced that they would be consolidating printing within their own facilities – leading to plant closures and around 180 jobs being lost.

Burke said: "It is not in the public interest that one company, which already owns huge chunks of private broadcasting and national newspaper publishing, should control the production of so many newspapers."

News International and Trinity Mirror declined to comment.

For more, see PrintWeek's newspaper analysis special in next week's magazine.