News International's managing director of operations, Ian McDonald, predicts that the small-scale digital printing of Britain's daily newspapers in remote areas is likely in about five years' time.
On a very small scale it is already happening because many titles are already being printed in hotels in Europe and North America in one-off formats for business guests. (I printed off my own copy of the Wall Street Journal at a hotel in Belgrade a couple of months ago).
McDonald has a larger vision, of serving audiences of maybe 5,000 from a single location. He believes publishers could team up with small printers who would print newspapers overnight and then use the presses to do commercial print work by day.
It would work well in popular holiday resorts. "In somewhere like Tenerife or Majorca we could find a jobbing printer and install a digital press there," said McDonald. "It can then print things like leaflets for local companies during the day, enabling it to offer us a good price in printing the newspapers overnight." (Via PrintWeek)
