Printing of four regional weeklies taken over this month will remain with Mortons Print at Horncastle for the time being.


Johnston Press bought the paid-for Lincolnshire newspapers - Horncastle News, Louth Leader, Skegness News and Market Rasen Mail - from Mortons Print's parent, Mortons Media, earlier this month.


Mortons Print production director Jim Lee said: "Nobody has told me any different than that we will be printing the Lincolnshire independent newspapers under the new ownership."


Although the company obviously wants to retain the work, he noted: "Even if they said 'very sorry, you've lost the contract', it's only 8% of our print business."


Johnston Press chief executive Tim Bowdler confirmed: "We can't bring them in-house because of capacity constraints." But he added that Johnston was "investing heavily" in upgrading its presses at Peterborough and Northampton.


The work will remain with Mortons for the foreseeable future, but is subject to review at any time.


Mortons Print signed an order with Goss for an extension of its Universal press at Drupa (PrintWeek, 26 May 2000).