Consolidation is key if we're to secure newsprint's future:
There are many newspaper presses around the country running maybe four or five hours in every 24. It doesn't take a genius to see that this is simply not sustainable. The overheads associated with running and maintaining these operations are massive, but there are many companies across the UK in the same position. That simply needs to change. There have been many developments in the publishing sector in past decades, but many publishers have not moved with the times and have retained their printing operations. I propose a new model with publishers sticking to producing content and leaving the print to the specialists, with a clear division between print and publishing. We should pool capacity to a point where newspaper plants are producing major titles through the night while production of the regional titles is carried out during the day shifts. This would result in an elimination of this spare capacity.
