The approval from Rotherham Council for the site, on former colliery land close to the M1 and M18 motorways, was granted at a planning board meeting last Thursday.

The council received just one objection to the plans related to traffic.
Johnston now expects the 16,000m2 plant, on a 14-acre site at Dinnington, to be operational by the end of 2006.

"We're progressing with the site we have chosen and it's moving on nicely to completion," said Tim Bowdler, Johnston Press chief executive.

Local titles including The Star, The Sheffield Telegraph and the Sheffield Journal and Gazette, as well as News International titles, will be printed on the plant's MAN Roland triple-width Colorman.

The news came as the regional press group issued a trading statement ahead of its year-end that revealed growth in circulation for its weekly titles and a 4.9% increase in advertising revenues in the five months to November.

While circulation of Johnston's weekly titles continued a nine-year period of growth, circulation of the group's daily titles remained in decline, partly due to a reduction in bulk sales.

In the statement, the company said that it expected to turn a profit for 2004 "above current market expectations".

Bowdler said that he expected 2005 to be another year of growth, "but set against the fact that the comparatives will be stronger."

The firm's expectation of "satisfactory progress" next year takes into account the anticipated increase in newsprint prices.

Pre-tax profits for the first half of 2004 were 77.3m, compared to 66.7m for the same period in 2003.

Story by Josh Brooks