Ten jobs have been lost after a regional publisher outsourced the distribution of two of its newspapers.

But publisher DC Thomson revealed that three-quarters of the 59 jobs at risk under plans to outsource distribution of its Aberdeen titles have been saved, by being transferred to another company.

DC Thomson announced last month its proposals to outsource the distribution of Aberdeen’s The Press and Journal and the Evening Express.

It said it was one of the last publishers in the country to still deliver its own titles but the cost of this was increasing and was no longer viable.

The company has now confirmed that delivery of its Aberdeen Newspaper titles has been transferred to Menzies Distribution, with 59 roles being cut as a result of this.

But a company spokeswoman said 45 of the affected positions had been transferred to Menzies, with ten redundancies made and four staff gaining alternative roles within DC Thomson.

The affected staff were those in the transport, circulation and finance departments in Aberdeen and Inverness.

Ellis Watson, chief executive officer for publishing, said: “We’ve taken the decision to outsource to maintain standards and quality, rather than to see our business decline.

“We were one of the last publishers in the UK who delivered our own newspapers and we needed to find more efficient ways of delivering them to enable us to continue investing in the future of our newspaper titles.

“The cost of producing and distributing to market is ever-increasing which means that it is no longer viable to keep doing this in our own way.

“Following careful consideration of all options, we subcontracted our deliveries to Menzies Distribution.”