“We are not pessimistic, we are realistic, and we know newspaper circulation, distribution is going down,” he said.

Based in Antwerp, Mediahuis publishes newspapers in the Netherlands and Ireland in addition to Belgium.

The majority of the new subscriptions that Mediahuis has gained during the pandemic have been for digital, he said, but these are often combined with their printed newspapers on weekends.

Delivering the keynote presentation at WAN-IFRA’s European Printers Summit in Frankfurt, the association’s first in-person event in nearly two years, Huybrechts highlighted six “P’s” crucial for the success of printing plant operations as the news industry moves into a future that he acknowledges will be dominated by digital, but where printed products can have a prominent position – and a profitable one.

Place, production and products

Place: Just as in real estate, the location of a publisher’s printing plant is a fundamental factor for success. 

Huybrechts noted that it is essential today that a printing plant be located where it can serve large numbers of customers.

He added that this is why Mediahuis decided to invest almost 40 million euros between 2017 and 2019 in its printing plant on the border of the Netherlands and Germany, which is also close to France.

“We are printing for all of these countries from that location. Place is very important for the future of print,” he said.

Production: There is a big advantage to printing newspapers since plant managers can be relatively certain about the next year’s circulation size and their production needs, Huybrechts said.

However, for many printing plants these days, producing printed newspapers requires only three to four hours of work during the night, so taking on contract jobs is essential.

“A printing plant is a huge capital investment for a publisher, and should print 24 hours, seven days,” he said.

What does that mean in practice? Huybrechts said for them it means printing a variety of jobs and products 24 hours a day Monday through Friday, and mainly just newspapers on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Products: Because newspaper printing only occupies a portion of the plant’s capacity, Huybrechts says print managers need to have a wide range of different products they are able to print for commercial customers. These other products include other newspapers, free sheets, cultural publications, magazines and so on.

This also means more formats and sizes. Huybrechts said greater flexibility is one of the main reasons they invested in presses in 2017-2019. He added that semi-commerical printing is becoming a larger portion of the work they are doing, and that it is working well for them.

“Whatever the customer wants,” he said, “and if we can’t do it, we’ll outsource it. Cooperation is very important. We try to work with everyone and that makes us stronger also.”

Price, people and planning

Price: While publishers face many different costs, such as materials, that are beyond their control, they can take measures to ensure their printing processes and plants are cost effective.

“I really believe publishers worldwide should try to optimise their plants and run them as efficiently as possible,” Huybrechts said. 

Printing is a process industry, he added, and as such, the objective is to have as high a rate of production hours as possible with the fewest number of workers. Therefore, he said, automation becomes crucial.

For many years, a goal in newspaper production was to have a lone operator who runs everything by pushing a button. Now, it’s a computer that is doing the job, Huybrechts said. This has now largely been accomplished through the developments and innovation in the past five to 10 years by suppliers. 

“We run our plant with one operator. I do not say printer, I say operator, who pushes a button. The systems are controlling what we print, how we print, and the quality level. That’s it. And that’s the only way to go forward,” he said.

People: It’s not quite just one person of course, and the staff are naturally doing more than just pushing a button, he added, but it’s imperative that people must also be flexible.

“Printers in our case are working in the print shop and also in the mailroom. They are flexible. It just depends on the work to be done. Our printers, or operators, are well paid, but we expect a lot of them,” he said. “We have a good staff, good people, following us on this journey. And that makes the print plant strong.”

Going hand in hand with that is training, he added.

“Training of people is key,” Huybrechts said.

It’s very difficult to find people with the necessary skills today, he noted. “But you can train them yourself, and we have had a very good experience with that,” he said.

Planning: Finally, the newspaper printing industry, like so many others, must lower its carbon footprint to remain sustainable, and for that planning is essential.

“We have to reduce our carbon footprint,” Huybrechts said. “We strongly believe in that, and we strongly support that goal. We want to have a neutral carbon footprint not only in our printing plant but also in our publishing area.”

Suppliers are also working to help the industry reduce its footprint on the printing side, but Huybrechts noted that a major issue for the newspaper industry in this area is related to distribution.

“Our main concern for the future is the distribution of our newspapers and the carbon footprint related to that, so there is where we still have a lot of work to do,” he said.

He added that more of their customers are asking them about what efforts they are taking to reduce their carbon footprint.

In addition, more readers are also interested in climate change. “Therefore, we believe it’s essential for the future of industry that we have a low carbon footprint,” he said.

‘We believe in the future of paper’

In closing, Huybrechts noted there are still plenty of challenges ahead, and that more printing plants will undoubtedly close, but that those who follow these six ‘P’s will have the best chance for success.

“We believe in the future of paper,” he said. “As a company, we strongly believe there is a future in paper for the newspaper. Of course digital will further grow, but we see that on Saturdays and Sundays, and some days during the week, that newspapers on paper will remain.”

Paul Huybrechts will also be speaking at WAN-IFRA’s Virtual World News Media Congress on Tuesday, 30 November, during a session titled Facing the Headwinds in Print & Distribution. See more about the Congress by clicking here.

Photo of Paul Huybrechts at the European Printers Summit by Michael Heipel, Contentivity.