The group's Plymouth plant is to roll off 276,000 UK, European and Middle East copies of Intelligent Life, a 140pp annual magazine, set to go at least twice yearly from 2006.

St Ives Roche will print covers for the magazine, which was previously printed by Tewkesbury's Cooper Clegg, who took the job over last year after the collapse of TPL.

"St Ives Peterborough prints the weekly magazine and we try to keep everything under one roof," said the magazine's international production director Sharon Simpson, explaining the switch.

As well as the change from yearly to biannual publication The Economist is printing 188,000 copies for America, which are being produced by a US printer.

Story by Jez Abbott