Printing contract terminated by Johnston Press

By PERRY GOURLEY
Published on 07/07/2012 00:00

JOHNSTON Press, the newspaper group which owns The Scotsman, is to receive £30 million from News International (NI) in exchange for the termination of long-term printing contracts.

Titles owned by NI, publisher of the Sun and the Times, are printed at Johnston Press’s sites at Dinnington near Sheffield and Portsmouth. It is understood the move follows the closure of NI’s News of the World title which was part of the agreement.

The two companies said they intend to enter into new long-term arrangements in due course to utilise capacity at Dinnington. Johnston Press said there was no planned headcount reduction at either facility as a result of the agreement and said it will “explore new contract printing opportunities with immediate effect” to maximise returns from capacity at both plants.