The new issue will be only the second time the supplement has been produced in-house at DMG’s Harmsworth Printing site in Grays, Essex, after it was forced to fast-track its plans following the collapse of YM’s web offset division. 

The publisher plans to add an extra 10pp to the tabloid-format title covering on-demand streaming TV, which will take the pagination up to 88pp.

“The refreshed listings section will offer a comprehensive choice of the week’s terrestrial, satellite, and cable TV – over six giant pages for each day’s viewing – and now printed in a larger font size ensuring the TV pages are clear and informative,” the publisher stated. 

However, sources have confirmed to Printweek that the Daily Mail on Saturday, which sells around 1.43m copies a week, will be unable to carry any inserts until 30 April at the earliest as the necessary inserting equipment is not yet up and running at Harmsworth Printing.

Producing Weekend on DMG's coldset flexo newspaper presses involves numerous challenges in terms of print quality, trimming and stitching and the halftone dot structure was clearly visible in last Saturday’s edition. 

First issue of Weekend printed in-house was for Saturday 9 April 

Commenting on the inaugural in-house issue, one production expert commented: “It wasn’t awful, but it’s a typical newsprint result. The main issues are trimming, banding due to tracking issues and breaking up of finer fonts.

"It all comes down to what editorial and advertising will say. YM or Prinovis would have been hauled over the coals if they had produced it.”

Weekend had been printed gravure at Prinovis since 2016, but the contract switched to web offset printing at YM Chantry six months ago in what proved to be a short-lived solution.