Like Woods, over the past three years, Crow’s employer, Edinburgh-based local newspaper publisher Johnston Press, has also transformed itself with an eye to securing its future. For a start, its print operation, which Crow heads up as divisional managing director, has spent over £120m on its
network of plants. Its £60m greenfield print plant in Dinnington, near Sheffield, and a £45m extension to its Portsmouth print site have been the flagship investments, each boasting a triple-width MAN Roland Colorman and a 15-year deal to print newspapers for News International.
Massive change
The publishing side of the business, which is headed up by well-respected chief executive Tim Bowdler, has also gone through a period of massive change. It has led consolidation in the regional publishing sector, buying up smaller rival publishers in the UK and Ireland including The Scotsman Publications, Local Press Group, the Leinster Leader and, most recently, Norwich-based publisher Archant’s operations in Scotland. It now publishes more than 300 newspapers across the UK. It has also been a leader in reorganising its newsrooms to produce both print-based and online content, and is proving that micro-focused local newspapers – some with circulations of just a few thousand – are among the most profitable of media businesses.
Crow, who trained in engineering before entering the fast-paced world of newspaper production, knows there has been upheaval over the past three years. “I have been incredibly fortunate to be part of a company at a time when it is going through huge change,” he says. “We have come a long way to get to the situation that we are in today.”
Now, Crow, who joined the firm nine years ago following spells as technical and operations director at the Nottingham Evening Post and general manager at Northcliffe, oversees a nationwide network of eight sites. He says that his biggest challenge at the time he joined the group was to revamp the command structure for Johnston’s print division. “In the past, the publishers ran printing and we changed that structure. It is part of our strategy to keep the printing separate, and let the publishers do what they are good at,” he says.
The strategy is paying off. With the two new sites at Dinnington, which is now fully operational, and Portsmouth, which ran its first test copies last week, Johnston Press has tied up two of the biggest newspaper printing contracts on the market. Each site has a 15-year contract to print around half a million copies daily of The Sun and, at weekends, the News of the World on their new triple-width presses. Dinnington, whose full-colour press includes 12 units and three folders, kicked off production last September and is now printing around 6.5m newspapers every week; the Portsmouth project is running almost exactly a year behind, so will be at full-throttle by autumn. “Things are progressing very well,” says Crow.
But of course, Crow’s empire goes beyond those two sites. A £10m upgrade to the Northern Irish Mortons of Portadown site, which Johnston Press acquired in 2005, is currently on the drawing board, while £11m was spent on an upgrade at its Peterborough plant in 2005. But as well as investment in facilities, other plants, such as Sheffield, Harrogate and Hartlepool, have closed as they became outdated.
Appropriate presses
Despite having comprehensive national coverage with his sites, Crow says that his decisions as to where to place particular papers is based more on the kit than the location. “We are looking for the right job for the right press, so we print across the sites,” he explains “Best value is important and that doesn’t always mean printing at the closest site. I am not frightened of printing a Milton Keynes title in Sunderland if that is the best way to do it. We are not a territorial business. We look at how something benefits the entire business.”
Like Tiger Woods’ changing swing, Johnston Press has worked hard to build on its strengths and plug gaps in its weaknesses. With two of the most modern print plants in the country in its print arsenal and a growing number of titles to produce, from the biggest nationals to the smallest local papers, Johnston Press looks likely to be a leader for years to come.
JOHNSTON PRESS FACTFILE
Head office Edinburgh
Chief executive Tim Bowdler
Johnston Printing divisional managing director David Crow
Turnover £602m
Major titles The Scotsman, Lancashire Evening Post, Yorkshire Post
Contracts with News International, Express Newspapers, Emap
Principal print sites Leeds, Sunderland, Dinnington, Peterborough, Northampton, Portsmouth, Edinburgh, Portadown, Northern Ireland
Newspaper publisher nears conclusion of transition years and looks to future
The walls in David Crows office are blank, except for one thing: a large plaque from the 2005 Open Championship signed by golf superstar Tiger Woods. That year, Tiger Woods victory in the British Open put an end to three tough years for arguably the most talented golfer of all time. For three years before 2005, Woods spent time changing his swing to save damage to his surgically-repaired left knee. He made sacrifices that affected him at the time so that later, in his career, he would still be able to flourish.
