At the end of last week DMG Media group production director Julia Palmer-Poucher informed employees at DMG’s Thurrock and Dinnington print plants that the CMA had stepped in.

In an email to workers, she thanked them for their professionalism and hard work during “challenging times”, and said: “As promised, I want to keep you up to date on current developments. I’m therefore writing to advise you that the Competition and Markets Authority has decided to review the transaction under its standard merger control approval process. That process is likely to last several months.”

Industry sources said that a timeline of three months was viewed as likely.

“We will of course keep you updated on any developments in due course, and we hope to be able to provide you with a further update from the CMA in the new year. 

“As planned, we will meet with your elected representatives in the coming weeks, and we will continue to answer as many questions as we can at this stage.”

At the beginning of the month News UK and DMG Media confirmed that they planned to create a new joint venture printing and logistics operation, ‘NewCo’ based around the three existing Newsprinters sites, with expected benefits including huge print and distribution efficiencies.

If the plans come to fruition, Dinnington and Thurrock would close, and as-yet-unspecified number of jobs would go.

An industry source commented: “This will put them back, and it’s not good for staff working at the Daily Mail [print sites] to be in limbo all that time.”

At the time of writing the CMA had not yet listed the ‘NewCo’ proposals as a live case.

Newsprinters had sales of £184.5m and made a pre-tax profit of £11.8m in its most recent report and accounts.

DMG’s Associated Print Holdings files subsidiary accounts and does not disclose its turnover. The business posted a £755,000 operating loss in the period ending 2 October 2022 (2021 operating loss: £733,000).

DMG's Carn site in Northern Ireland is not part of the joint venture plan and is unaffected.