Mortons media group

 I attended a lecture by Steve Scott , the contract print sales manager for print division of Mortons media group ltd.
He said that he had Worked in newspaper production since serving an apprenticeship as a compositor at the hull daily mail in 1970.

Also he Spent 10 years with the hem before moving to the times.

He worked for a Free press group in Middlesbrough , before he moved to Morton,s of horn castle in 1994  as sales manager for their print division.

He told us that mortons had
Been around for over 100 years

And boasted a 22 publication portfolio

Classics heritage

Demand for  printed word diminishing

Due to Internet and 24 hour news channels  to name but two

Mortons have moved to into the events and trade shows And  from own four 12 months ago
The portfolio has  grown to 17 with new launches and acquisitions

 The growth of this sector of business  has resulted in a new department who spend their time planning

Since 2012 new CEO Ian fisher  brought all of the divisions back under the one umbrella with the aim of streamlining the operation to  meet the demands of the 21st century

The way forward has to further the multimedia company they are today

As an independent print we have continued to challenge the might of the contract printers in the uk. We continue to thrive in a competitive  market that has seen many  of their competitors exit the manufacturing side of the business

Had a press installation in 2006

Their secret
Markets are diverse they print over 120 different titles each week

Their portfolio numbers over 300 publishers annually

Daily regional newspaper

Twice weekly titles

Weekly

Fortnightly

Monthly

Occasional

Heat set

The product mix is their uniqueness and their strength
They go that extra mile and endeavour to ensure that the presentation of artwork Is going to be uploaded onto their servers in the correct order so it prints first time every time.  They are not just printers and to rely on printing alone would be limiting . They can stitch and trim, in line or off line  they also offer a full mailing and fulfilment  operation, not only do thay print customers papers but they can post them out to  their subscribers they can dispatch anything from council tax bills  to university hoodies , the list is endless  their largest weekly customer prints 700,000 copies in sections and they stitch and trim them into  weekly newspapers  they offer a digital printing service capable of printing SRA3 single sheets to booklets  print production and technology printing technology that went hand in hand with hot metal typesetting was letterpress. This involved a cast plate of the  original page created from the hot metal slugs and halftonr pictures etched into a metal plate. This was placed around a cylinder and  alongside other pages that made up the newspapers   the production process - talked about the change in production process  talked about the decrease in uk/ Ireland 10 ears ago numbers were more than double  why the decline - faster more efficient equipment  reclining circulation , markets
challenges to the printed word- newspaper sector,  financial meltdown, the internet, the recession, slow recovery , change of reading habits
The future - newspaper will be arounf for many years to come but in a reduced format, micropublishing  will probably become focal points for local community  more peoducts but more controlled  targeted circulation and distributinon  digital printing giving the reader the opportunity to select what they need