Independent UK printer Polestar has called in administrators, the loss of a contract with Daily Mail publisher DMG Media apparently the last straw.

About 1500 jobs are reported to be at risk, although administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers has already started the search for potential buyers.

Heatset web printer Polestar prints an estimated 50 million magazines, inserts and other work including Hello!, Cosmopolitan, Grazia and the Radio Times.

Formed by the 1998 merger of BPC with Watmoughs, it was once owned by Robert Maxwell, and has suffered the ongoing consequences of that association, even into the ongoing history of related pension schemes.

Production had been centralised at seven print sites - it once had 28 - and orders have been affected by falling circulations. It was bought last month by Proventus Capital Partner, but hit trouble when the DMG contract was not transferred.