Gosh, doesn't time fly. February is upon us already. And yet still we await some sort of Caesar's thumb movement from IPC Media about its now infamous print review for those Southbank titles.

To recap, it emerged that a review was being launched at the end of May last year. The existing contracts expire this coming June, now a mere four months away.

At the time it seemed that Southernprint's then management team had certainly done enough groundwork to put themselves in a strong position to win at least a part of it, but the firm's acquisition by Walstead just two months later must have thrown something of a spanner in the works viz the potential future shape of UK Web Offset plc.

The dust duly settled, and by October a decision was apparently imminent, but still word there came none. Could this be connected to the fact that the following month a board-level restructure at the publisher saw the appointment of a new managing director for central operations, including production? Whatever, it's hardly surprising that this information void has been filled by speculators touting various possible scenarios, some more likely than others, thus:

1. Status quo. St Ives keeps all the work, or most of it. Industry tittle-tattle involving the group going back to IPC with a hefty double-digit price cut, which would seem to fly in the face of the plc's stated policy, has been rebutted by the Lavington Street mob.
2. Walstead (Wyndeham and Southernprint) wins substantially all of it. Conspiracy theorists believe this is already a known known, but it hasn't been publicly disclosed due to the imminent ballot at Southernprint over possible industrial action. News of a large contract win would obviously give the union an additional advantage in said negotiations.
3. New, improved, not-so-bonkers BGP wins some of it.
4. Polestar rides up on the rails and persuades IPC that having most of its eggs in one basket isn't actually a problem at all, and captures a chunk of it. Perhaps Marie Claire can go from being continental gravure to UK gravure?
5. Alternatively... Roto Smeets wins Marie Claire bringing it a little closer to home at least.
6. William Gibbons takes it all on, at prices that belie its 16pp capacity. Margins at the printer subsequently increase.
7. The saga celebrates its anniversary in May with still no word on the outcome.
8. None of the above.

If I were more expert in the ways of the betting world I would have added odds too, perhaps some specialists within PrintWeek's readership can help me out there.

Peering into print's crystal ball is tricky enough at the best of times, but I could never have imagined that the mists would remain so cloudy for such a protracted period.