Newnorth delivers poetry in Notion with mag insert

Bedford-based Newnorth has been printing London-based fashion quarterly Notion Magazine for the past two years, so when Notion opted to print its summer edition complete with an inserted UK festival guide, it had every faith that Newnorth could continue to provide a fine service.

“Being the incumbents we sat down and thrashed it around, came up with a spec and decided how to incorporate a festival guide into the magazine,” said Newnorth head of business development Rod Lawrie. 

What did you produce? 

The 232pp publication, complete with six-page cover wrap, came this time with a 64pp B5 brochure tucked inside. 

The job took place during a 10-day period in early June and the issue has now hit selected newsstands and retail stores. The run of guides was 40,000, half of which were inserted into the 20,000-run of magazines and half of which were distributed separately.  

What did the job entail?

Both magazine and brochure were printed on Newnorth’s 10-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 102, covers on 350gsm Galerie gloss and text pages on 130gsm Galerie. The guide’s cover was 170gsm Horizon and 110gsm Horizon for the text.

Gloss lamination for the magazine’s cover was outsourced but it was bound using Newnorth’s Wohlenberg Perfect Binder. The guide was saddle-stitched internally using a Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 350.

For insertion, the guide was hand-stuck with peel-off adhesive onto a 190gsm uncoated ‘carrier leaf’ in a middle section of the magazine. 

What challenges were overcome?

Lawrie said incorporating the extra process in the given timeframe was “pretty challenging”.

“We had to incorporate the fairly chunky guide,” he said. 

“Making sure that the pagination for the guide worked so that it was not so bulky that it impinged on the magazine, then working out how to have the carrier leaf in order to take a booklet that weighed what it weighed.”

What was the feedback?

Notion founder Billy Hussein said: “The big thing about this is quality of print. We can go with other printers and get it cheaper but it’s not the quality we want. The quality and service from Rod is what keeps us there.”

Do you have a Killer App? We are interested in special, difficult or simply fabulous print jobs. Contact Max Goldbart on 020 7501 6681 or
max.goldbart@markallengroup.com.