Jobs are under threat after a regional publisher announced it is closing a print centre which employs 96 people.
Archant is set to close Thorpe print centre, in Norwich, with News UK subsidiary Newsprinters taking on the company’s portfolio at its plant in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire from November.
As a result the Thorpe centre, pictured, will be decommissioned, with Menzies and Smiths News taking over deliveries in Norfolk and Suffolk which are currently managed internally.
Archant has said the “majority” of staff based at Thorpe, which has been operational since 1996, will be transferred to Newsprinters, Menzies or Smiths News, but has envisaged there may be redundancies.
Archant declined to reveal how many jobs were at risk when approached by HTFP, but the company has confirmed a consultation period is now under way.
Archant chief executive Jeff Henry met with workers at the centre last night, and the decision was revealed to the company’s other staff in an announcement sent out this morning.
The ‘Thorpe print centre – FAQ’ announcement, which has been seen by HTFP, states: “First, this decision is not a reflection on the Thorpe team who are some of the hardest working and passionate people in our organisation. They have always risen to the challenge and a number of individuals have served our company for a long time.
“However, as everyone understands, in the decades since we opened the Thorpe site, our industry has gone through many changes.
“For the first time, a third party is now able to offer the capacity and flexibility to print all our daily and weekly papers, providing substantial cost savings. Our business continues to invest into growth areas such as our digital platforms, to keep Archant robust and future-proof.”
The company said the move would also lead to a “reduced impact on the environment” because Broxbourne is closer to the areas of London, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and the South-West of England in which it publishes.
It further stressed there would be no changes to the printing deadlines for its newspapers or working patterns of its journalists as a result.
The statement added: “We have entered into a long term ‘variable cost’ agreement with Newsprinters, meaning we will not be tied to the high fixed costs of our present operation.
“As some of you will be aware, we already have strong existing relationships with Menzies and Smiths News, who will now take over delivery of Norfolk and Suffolk.
“Outsourcing is not new to Archant. Traditionally, a number of our newspapers were printed by a third party and the majority of our newspaper distribution is already provided by external suppliers. Our magazines have always been printed and distributed by third parties.”
Staff were advised in the noticed that Archant newsrooms would be briefed on covering the closure by group content director Steve Anglesey.
Archant CEO Jeff Henry said: “Archant is committed to delivering the best possible service to our readers and advertisers in the most cost effective manner. The Broxbourne printing plant is one of the largest and most technologically advanced in the world which will ensure we continue to deliver the highest quality printed newspapers to our readers in the most cost efficient manner.
“I would like to thank the teams at Thorpe for their dedication and the great service they have delivered to our business, over many years, whatever the challenge.”
Newsprinters MD Darren Barker added: “We are delighted to be working with Archant and look forward to supporting them with a comprehensive print and delivery service across all of their weekly and daily titles.”
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Blimey – I can now why after years of having a Westminster-based political editor the EDP clearly can’t afford to retain any kind of political correspondent now.
The ‘reduced impact is nonsense because the bulk of the Broxbourne work will be bigger-selling six-day-a-week publications in Norfolk and Suffolk, rather than weekly titles elsewhere.
I do wonder about those deadlines though – if there’s been late football at Norwich or Ipswich before the presses have been held back. But now…?
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The other thing about Thorpe closing is this: it was always assumed that when Prospect House in the centre of Norwich was sold, some of its operations would be transferred to Thorpe. What happens now in Norwich? Talk of selling Prospect House has gone very, very quiet. If there was to be a post-Brexit recession it’d be extremely hard to dispose of such a large site at the price the company would no doubt want for it.
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They’ve lost their best sports writer to The Athletic so are not covering football in the depth it once was and out of area outsourcing will certainly affect deadlines and result in even more lost EDP readers/buyers.
OneTimeSub
Print content and print deadlines are no longer a priority as the company’s focus is purely on digital publishing going forward.
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Russ: absolutely agree on the sports writer. And as for the switch to Broxbourne, it’ll be easier to drop, say, the Norwich Evening News and the Ipswich Star from your printed portfolio once you only have to slightly amend the terms of a third-party contract. With the NEN having a 10.30pm deadline they might as well give up now frankly since they can’t get post-match quotes on the back page.
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The NEN must be under serious threat of closure with this latest development adding to its long list of problems.
At a time when costs are under scrutiny, continuing with a paper hardly anyone buys and even fewer advertise in and which has lost its city readership makes no sense.
Having become an embarrassing shadow of its once former self it must be time to put it out of its misery once and for all.
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Time to put The New European out of its misery.
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I agree with the point about the N evening News being absorbed by the EDP @James I just wonder if they’ll consolidate all the weekly titles into one Norfolk Weekly with slips or bundle up neighbouring titles : GYM/LOW/BBJ into a costal weekly and the same in the county areas? It makes no commercial sense to run late weeklies hardly anyone buys in towns where the community aren’t interested in a weekly print title?
My view in light of Thorpe closing is they may convert to online only brands thus reducing print costs,transportation and staffing numbers, it’s all about digital and reducing overheads and costs these days so that’s the way I can see it going.
One things for sure they can no longer continue printing papers so few are buying.
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When you read the letter sent to shareholders it basically admits that they are not selling papers. “With declining print volumes” which as been said essentially says, it is no longer viable for us to have our own press when we don’t need to print many.
But still advertisers are spun a load of “bull” that Archant publications are THE place to advertise! Still paying premium price for advertising despite less readers!
Meanwhile free publications are on the increase….. if someone was to launch a county wide FREE daily they would probably finish off Archant.
Wonder what my shares are worth?
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Spot on @stonehand
This closure is the latest sign that Archant are phasing out their portfolio of local newspapers and going full on digital.
My guess is they’ll start closing papers, or at best merging titles, to reduce overheads and costs to third parties then convert all remaining titles to digital online only editions.
Free weeklies are opening up all over their traditional territories filling the gaps they’ve left by withdrawing offices ,staff and their presence in the county towns, a lack of interest in the communities that local people are noticing.
These independent titles,many staffed and run by ex Archant employees, are thriving, picking up readers and advertisers by going back to basics and providing the sort of professional hyper local grass roots news and advertising service people want and advertisers are prepared to pay to reach ,making decent profits and growing their audiences while Archant go in search of the illusive digital dollar, something after a decade of trying they’ve still not managed to monetise.
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