What will happen next in UK web offset?

Will Polestar build a big web offset shed next to its big gravure shed? Sounds like it could be a plan, but where will the large amount of £££ come from to do it? Equally, where will the money come from to close down the obsolete plants in its current web offset platform?

Polestar chief Barry Hibbert has been pretty clear in stating that if web offset presses within the group aren't making money, then they will be closed down. One must assume that new owner Sun Capital is providing the necessary dosh to do this. And boy, has Polestar got some old iron it needs to retire.

While it's not quite the case that some of the group's web presses are as old as I am, in terms of web offset competitiveness they might as well be. Back of an envelope calculations puts the average age of Polestar's webs at 15+ years. Some of the brand names provide a clue - Baker Perkins, for one. Not to say these machines can't still put ink on paper perfectly acceptably, but the efficiency, productivity and manning requirements are sooo last century. Twin web, anyone?

Simultaneously, we await the inevitable re-shaping of Walstead's web platform. Perhaps one aspect that will be critical to that is what happens with The Economist's contract renegotiations.

Meanwhile, BGP's decision to effectively kick out the Future work is good news for Gibbons, who'll no doubt continue to make a double-digit return despite the fact that BGP's Future contract was reportedly at a price deemed ludicrously low. Will the additional Future titles cause indigestion in the west midlands? The knock-on effects could be interesting.

Publishers for whom printed magazines remain a critical profit driver should be paying close attention to all this.