News UK has set up a division to target publishers looking to contract out printing and other back office services, arguing according to CEO Mike Darcey that publishers need to work together to ensure the continuation of printed newspapers.
And as part of that effort the company is a key part of a National Newspaper Publishers Association feasibility study into establishing a digital print operation on the Channel Islands. This would use Kodak technology and print editions of the UK’s national newspapers to eliminate the need to ship copies to London’s airports, clear these through security and fly them to readers in Jersey, Guernsey and the other island.
The new operation will be News Solutions, offering contract print space on the presses at Broxbourne, Knowsley and Glasgow, and back office services extending to help desks for editorial and distribution. The company points out that it already prints and distributes the Daily Telegraph from Broxbourne and prints the Financial Times and Evening Standard there. “There is consolidation happening across the UK newspaper printing market. We are trying to make our print capacity sustainable,” he says.
The benefit to News UK from the initiative is to spread the very high fixed cost of the presses and related equipment and service operations across a greater number of customers to compensate for any decline in circulations. Other publishers are unlikely to invest in new capacity even if they need to.
“We are looking to offer a full point and production service covering planning and production services to complement print. We are looking at logistics where we can offer shared routes within the M25 where we can deliver direct to newsagents or where we deliver directly to subscribers before 7am each day,” says Darcey.
The company has more than 16,000 subscribers taking advantage of this and has signed up the Times Educational Supplement and Jewish Chronicle to use its distribution channels. It is talking with magazine publishers about how they might bypass conventional postal distribution and is planning to organise these into a series of distribution franchises around London. “Royal Mail’s costs are driven by weight, we are not,” says commercial director Tracey Hart.
Chief operating officer Chris Taylor adds: “We can offer the services that a publisher needs where we are not in direct competition with other publishers to share those services as well as we have done with print and distribution.”
This includes the paywall technology that it has built to support the Times online subscriptions. It also includes the Kodak inkjet heads that are fitted across the Manroland press lines. These are used to provide Sun readers access to the online editions and have been used by some advertisers to offer redemption codes and promotional offers.
But inkjet might end up printing whole newspapers if the NPA report is favourable and if the interests in printing on the islands can outweigh the difficulties in getting agreements to do so. And if agreement is reached for this project, there are already thoughts about extending this to the Scottish islands to ensure supply of up to date printed newspapers.
News UK is making a business of its production capacity.
