The tender, which is expected to start in late September or early October, will be the first since Emap's £1bn acquisition by Guardian Media Group and Apax last March.

Since then, the B2B publisher has reorganised into four divisions, Emap Inform, Emap Connect, Emap Insight and Emap Networks, which are responsible for magazines, exhibitions, data and conference activities respectively.

Emap Inform manufacturing director Richard Hunt said: "Last year, our print spend with our main contracted suppliers was about £3m and we're probably looking to do that again."

Hunt added that the publisher spent around £2m a year on peripheral printed products, which will also be included in this year's tender.

He said: "Our main suppliers are included in the peripheral print purchasing, but we've also got around another 20 peripheral print suppliers that we have contracts with.

"Those contracts only run until the end of March next year so I'm aiming to tie in a bit more peripheral print with our main contracted suppliers to see if we can get a better deal."

Hunt confirmed that Emap Inform would continue to run a split roster of main suppliers and 20 peripheral suppliers. The new contracts for both will run from the beginning of the new financial year in April 2009.

Emap Inform's current main suppliers are Polestar, Wyndeham, Southernprint and Headley Brothers, while its prepress provider is London-based F1 Colour.