4.6m copies a week
Polestar in bid to retain £18m IPC weeklies
By Josh Brooks Thursday, 22 May 2008
Polestar is pitching to hold on to around £18m of magazine print work for IPC Media after the publisher put some of its biggest titles out to tender.
In what is the biggest web print tender so far this year, the magazine group has asked the market’s biggest web and gravure companies to bid for 10 weekly TV and women’s titles, representing around 4.6m copies every week.
Magazines involved in the process include high-circulation titles such as What’s on TV, TVTimes, TV easy, Now!, Pick Me Up and Woman’s Own. All are from the publisher’s IPC Connect and IPC TX stables.
They are currently printed web offset and gravure by Polestar. However, IPC has invited a group of rivals including BGP, Prinovis, Southernprint, St Ives and Wyndeham to bid for the work.
Two European printers have also been invited to tender for the work: Quebecor World’s Charleroi plant in Belgium, and the northern French web and gravure firm Decoster.
Jasper Scott, production director at IPC Media, said: “With the closure of so many web plants since the last time I did an exercise like this, it made sense to look overseas.
“Quebecor World closing in Corby was a tipping point and really tightened capacity.”
Scott said that a decision on winners of the tender is expected in early June.
Polestar declined to comment.
MAGAZINES UP FOR GRABS
What’s On TV 1,386,900 (ABC circulation)
Chat 519,413
Now 470,290
Pick Me Up 426,327
Woman 371,351
Woman’s Weekly 367,073
TV Times 358,511
Woman’s Own 349,164
TV Easy 254,669
Soaplife 102,452
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