Diversified industrial manufacturer Illinois Tool Works announced Thursday it will buy newspaper handling equipment maker Quipp Inc., Reuters reported.

The deal is expected to be between US$6.4 million and $8.4 million, and the final price will be decided based on Quipp's cash, cash equivalents and debts.

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As demand for the paper newspapers are printed on shrinks, the cost of that paper is on the rise in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Paper companies spent much of 2007 idling the machinery used to make the paper, and sometimes even having to sell that machinery. This decrease in supply means paper companies have more power over pricing their products, and have turned to raising prices in the face of shrinking demand and revenues as readers turn to online.

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The Chicago Tribune confirmed Friday it will terminate remote printing of its Midwest edition this spring, shrinking its distribution area, Editor & Publisher reported Friday.

Its Midwest edition has been printed by Capital Newspapers in Madison, Wisc., and The News Gazette in Champaign, Ill.

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A printworks expansion project costing Newsquest and its Herald publishers four million pounds is expected to protect more than 100 jobs, AllmediaScotland reported Friday.

The investment in the Cambuslang, Scotland plant will go to two new tower print units and revamping a third tower, which enables the plant to produce full-colour, 128-page tabloid-sized newspapers for Newsquest rival Associated Newspapers. Associated recently signed an agreement stating it will continue printing its Scottish Daily Mail and Scottish Mail on Sunday at the Cambuslang plant until 2022.

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Problems with production at Mutare Board and Paper Mills have caused the Zimpapers to reduce print runs for its newspapers, the publishing group's chief executive announced Tuesday.

Justin Mutasa apologised to readers and advertisers in a statement, and said the group's Harare Branch uses 100 tons of newsprint each week, while its Bulawayo Branch uses 30 tons, All Africa reported Wednesday.

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The Bakersfield Californian newspaper will begin outsourcing its printing operation in mid-March, a move that will cut 34 jobs at the newspaper's publishing centre.

The printing will be done by Nevada-based Brad Moseley Inc.

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Gannett's British newspaper division Newsquest is closing one of it printing sites.

According to the Guardian's Stephen Brook, Newsquest is shutting down the Newport plant, the company's only Welsh site. It is said this action could lead to 21 jobs cut.

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The South Wales Argus could see 21 job cuts if parent company Newsquest closes its printing plant in Newport and switches to overnight publishing, HoldtheFrontPage reported Tuesday.

Executives at Newsquest, one of the largest regional newspaper publishers in the United Kingdom, are in talks with staff over whether to make the move, as currently only the Saturday edition of the Argus is printed overnight.

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Following an industry-wide trend aimed at trimming operating costs, a smaller Chicago Sun-Times hit the streets today.

The tabloid is now about an inch shorter, at about 12-inches tall, and is part of the company's efforts to cut operating costs by $50 million in 2008, said Tammy Chase, Sun-Times spokeswoman.

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The newspaper software provider Digital Technology International (DTI) is aiming to unify print and web publishing with a new software tool, PrintWeek reported Thursday.

MediaPool brings print and online publishing closer together, keeping all content together in one database, regardless of where it will end up.

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Rupert Murdoch opened his Eurocentral printing plant in Scotland today, announcing it is the “largest and fastest” in the world, MediaGuardian reported.

The first stage of the UK subsidiary News International's £650 million printing press modernisation programme was also unveiled by the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation Murdoch, who was joined by Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister.

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Fairfax Media is closing its printing press in Warrnambool, in Victoria's south west, causing up to 20 job losses there.

The closing is part of an effort to combine the company's regional printing plants, ABC News in Australia reported.

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Greenpeace activists in the Netherlands this weekend blocked a cargo ship they said was carrying newsprint that had been made from trees cut down in old growth forests in Canada.

The environmentalists called for newspapers to not use papers made from old growth forests, and on Saturday prevented a 560-foot ship called Finnwood from unloading at Terneuzen port, 130 miles south of Amsterdam, the Associated Press reported.

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Portugal's top press distribution company, the Vasp Group, has been putting several international newspapers on newsstands in real time during the past two months; sometimes the newspapers are for sale in Lisbon even before they're available in their home cities.

Thanks to digital developments, The Washington Post, Folha de São Paulo, Tribune de Geneve and The Evening Standard are available in Portugal on the day they're published in their country of origin, with The Post and Folha actually hitting newsstands in Lisbon about four hours before they go on sale in Washington, D.C. or São Paulo, due to time differences.

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by Tatiana Repkova

The size of The Sydney Morning Herald will be reduced from its current broadsheet size next year as part of a significant restructure by publisher Fairfax Media. The changes will include another round of redundancies at the Herald and The Sun-Herald, the third in less than three years.

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