Tourists and Channel Islands residents will still get their daily fix of London papers on time thanks to a new agreement announced this week.
KP Services (Jersey) – a joint venture between Kodak and then owners of the Jersey Evening Post, Guiton Group – had been printing the UK nationals and the local daily on a Kodak inkjet web press since May 2016.
But a merger of the Evening Post with upstart digital publisher Bailiwick Express, to form a new media holdings company, brought a new party into the arrangement. MH Limited also includes Jersey Distribution, which wholesales the national newspapers and magazines in Jersey, one of a group of UK-owned islands off the coast of north-west France.
Under the new agreement, KP Services has secured printing contracts for UK national newspapers until May 2024. KP Services, based in Saint Saviour, Jersey, will continue to print the newspapers of publishers News UK, the Daily Mail Group and Reach PLC as well as the Jersey Evening Post titles, for distribution in Jersey and Guernsey with their portfolio running to more than 20 separate titles.
Founded in 2015, KP Services prints on two Kodak Prosper 6000P presses, based on the company’s Stream continuous inkjet technology, delivering full CMYK at up to 300 metres per minute on standard newsprint.
The new print centre brought an update from a 40-year-old offset newspaper press with limited colour to full-colour throughout. Inkjet printing of the UK dailies from digital files ended the uncertainty and delay resulting from airfreighted copies being held up by fog and bad weather.
KP Services managing director Bill Paterson says the two Prosper presses have reliably printed the UK national newspaper titles as well as the Jersey Evening Post for the six years they have been in operation, with the company's operational model “more than capable” to service the readership population of the Channel Islands, and “a perfect solution” for flexible, short-run printing of newspapers and other products.
“At the same time, it shows the Prosper presses are robust workhorses that meet the requirements of high-quality newspaper printing with frequent job changes and enable profitable production.”
Guiton Group, Kodak’s partner in KP Services, is owned by Wolverhampton-headquartered Claverley Group, which owns mastheads including the Express & Star and Shropshire Star, as well as printing and computer systems businesses.
The Jersey Evening Post and Bailiwick Express announced their merger last August. Digital newspaper Bailiwick Express launched in Jersey in 2014, with a Guernsey edition following in 2018.