Newsprinters, the manufacturing subsidiary of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News International, will now print The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph alongside its own national titles, The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times.
News International announced a £600m investment in new printing facilities three years ago. The new presses will go live next year.
This is the first commercial printing deal for Newsprinters, which has three main sites at Broxbourne, Knowsley and Eurocentral. The plants will house 19 full-colour MAN Roland Colorman XXL presses, each capable of producing 86,000 copies.
News International executive chairman Les Hinton said: “When our three print sites are fully operational next year, we will have Europe’s largest and most advanced newspaper manufacturing operation.
“The scale of our operation and the speed of our presses give us an opportunity to generate additional revenue for our business by selling extra press capacity to third-party publishers. Naturally, our commitment to print The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph will have no impact on our ability to print our own titles.”
The Telegraph Media Group, owner of the Telegraph newspapers, made the decision after studying the options available for the installation of new presses at West Ferry and Trafford Park, where the company has arrangements in place with Express Newspapers and the Guardian Media Group.
The deal with Newsprinters gives the Telegraph full colour on every page and up to six different sections in the live news product.
The Telegraph Media Group said the exact timing for the transition of work to Newsprinters is yet to be finalised, but that the company intends to maintain a printing facility at West Ferry.
The Daily Telegraph has a daily circulation of nearly 900,000, while The Sunday Telegraph sells nearly 650,000 copies per week, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The print run is not known.
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"Sorry to read this, a big name to go down, hopefully a lot of the £1.8M was insured. We are recruiting operational staff & currently in-talks to assist the clients with immediate requirements."
"£1.8m !! Very big numbers indeed."
"Now black really is white. Ditching a product line with all its consequences for customers is now an award winning move. Priceless!"
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