Despite last week's rapprochement with Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond, the group is looking at "a whole range of options" for printing arrangement beyond the contract's 2009 expiry.

Telegraph Group managing director Hugo Drayton said that possibilities included "a greenfield site with a joint venture, setting up on our own, through to us staying with the Express titles at West Ferry."

The Telegraph Group and Guardian Media Group already have a joint venture, Trafford Park Printers, in Manchester. GMG's contract at West Ferry also expires in 2009.

Drayton added that replacing the aging presses at West Ferry would be "a big logistical challenge", and that the Docklands area was poorly served in terms of transport.

But he welcomed Desmond's decision to continue the previously fraught joint venture at the plant as "good news".

"It's much better to have a balanced and happy joint venture for the biggest broadsheet plant in Europe," he said.

Drayton also welcomed the appointment of former Associated Newspapers managing director Murdoch MacLennan as chief executive at the group. "He will be seen as a force for good," he said.

He said it was "too early to tell" what effect the appointment would have on the management team at the Telegraph, but added: "Murdoch will want to get a feel for the place and in time he will want to put his own stamp on the team."

He again said that there were no plans to move the Telegraph titles to a tabloid format in the near future. He said that The Times, which launched its compact paper in November 2003, had brought "a small boost at a massive cost".

"Although we are constantly reviewing [a compact launch], I don't expect there will be a sudden change," he said.

Story by Josh Brooks