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The forums of printweek.com have been buzzing this week with discussions over the future of UK magazine printing.

The story that kicked it all off was Wyndeham's move to quell rumours about its trading status, after one of its backers, Icelandic PE group Stodir, was placed into administration. The firm said that it was "business as usual" as Stodir only had a minor shareholding and that all was well at its main bank, Landsbanki.

Within days, Sod and his pesky law dictated that no sooner had the rumour mill stopped grinding than the Icelandic Stock Exchange suspended Landsbanki’s shares (and other banks’ to be fair) and the government secured an agreement from the banks to sell off large chunks of their foreign assets.

What this means for Wyndeham, only time will tell, but with credit crunch presumably stalling any potential deal between it and Polestar my best guess would be that Landsbanki and its other major stakeholder Baugur will be upping their efforts to find a buyer.

The bad news is that they won’t be the only magazine printer looking for a new owner, after Pindar’s announcement that it was looking for a buyer for Cooper Clegg, a little over 18 months after it bought it.

While there are said to be a number of interested parties, no one seems to have a clue as to who they might be. The major players in the sector have pretty much ruled themselves out, which only leaves a new entrant into the magazine sector (or perhaps a brave publisher).

The problem is who would want to get into magazine printing? As Andrew Pindar himself said, prices in the sector are unsustainable and if they continue to fall then it will be a case of last man standing – hardly an attractive proposition for any investor.

And, as if to illustrate exactly why you wouldn’t want to get into magazine printing, we have the story this week regarding Future’s decision to move its magazines to Polestar and William Gibbons, according to incumbents Wyndeham and Southernprint, purely on price.

Sadly, not the kind of news that is likely to tempt a new investor to the sector.

Darryl Danielli is editor of PrintWeek.