Outsourcing on the agenda as the top brass parley in Canberra

School's back at the 'big house' in Canberra today, and the top brass of Fairfax, News and WAN have been in town with an agenda of their own... but what about the outsourcing issue close to the heart of one of them? (writes Peter Coleman) One the face of it, Brian McCarthy (Fairfax Media), John Hartigan (News Limited) and Chris Wharton (West Australian Newspapers) are in the federal capital to make the case for newspapers' share of the upcoming political ad spend. The gathering under the 'The Newspaper Works' banner on the day of the first parliamentary sitting is to promote the need and opportunity for creative advertising in print by government departments and agencies. The prepping's already been done for that, with comment such as the Shoebridge piece in the 'Australian Financial Review' last Monday reviewing the extraordinary background to the government's $38.5 million blitz in support of its mining 'super profits' tax, and finding the ads dull and dreary. And for McCarthy's other agenda: To get fellow newspaper publishers thinking about outsourcing and sharing of print facilities. The same publication and the same journalist, Neil Shoebridge came to the party to provide McCarthy with the opportunity to spruik his interest in sharing printing and distribution with rival publishers. Casual negotiations about working together "in areas such as newspaper distribution" took place four years ago, but "did not lead anywhere," the report says. Talking about the "missed opportunity", he suggested there was scope for cooperation with both News and APN... which APN's Brendan Hopkins has since effectively limited to New Zealand. And the usual potential stopping points of anti-competitive legislation, and who gets the latest print deadlines are mentioned. So much for the objections - we've heard them before, and seen them overcome by publishers all over the world - but is anyone interested in the advantages? Well, McCarthy for a start. It's not a new idea, of course: Having made a business of commercial newspaper printing for example, Rural Press was a significant provider of outsourced printing to News Limited as well as other publishers. Funnily enough (or not) a good proportion of that News business has been pulled since the merger of Rural into arch-enemy Fairfax Media. Fairfax didn't respond to efforts by GXpress to confirm details, but we understand that work including colour supplements for some of News' Cumberland titles (North Richmond) and Melbourne suburbans (Canberra) is no longer being printed at the now-Fairfax sites. And last year's opening of a new Hobart print centre for News Limited's 'The Mercury' in Tasmania ended a longstanding print cooperation between News and Rural Press sites at Launceston and Burnie, leading indirectly to the closure of the latter. And Fairfax - which professes an interest in cooperation with APN - has opened a major new plant in the Queensland and northern NSW regional publisher's Brisbane heartland. Nor would we suggest for a moment that those moves were wrong: We've always advocated possession of printing capacity as an essential in a competitive market. And - despite cooperation on Freedom of Information campaigns and The Newspaper Works advertising initiative - News and Fairfax aren't likely to end their fierce rivalry anytime soon. So what is McCarthy after? We'd suggest there is more than the prospect of outsourcing print and distribution in his sights. Fairfax has specific issues to address, going back to former CEO David Kirk's desire to reduce the page dimensions of its metropolitan broadsheets (frustrated in part by the age of the presses); interest in printing more of its own heatset and semicommercial work; and updating its mostly-ageing plant in New Zealand. There's an agenda for further capital expenditure if newspapers in Australia and New Zealand are not to find themselves in the same downward spiral the industry in the USA is facing (we think for exactly that reason)! Or shared print and distribution. Both major publishers would also need to share or outsource both print and distribution if they were to take real advantage of publishing opportunities offered to them by digital newspaper printing for remote and super-local editions. We think Fairfax and APN can work together - they've stepped carefully around each other in regional Australia, and could do the same in New Zealand - if they need to, or if there was any advantage. Fairfax and News? In a word, unlikely... and indeed, the day keen competition between these majors ends will be a sorry one for Australian media. It is likely only if Rupert Murdoch were to lose interest in print publishing, or die, leaving then the same potential for change as followed Kerry Packer's death. As for the Fairfax wish-list... there's the option of working with a contract printer. But Fairfax seems to be getting further from the personal and contractual relationship (and shareholding) it had with Michael Hannan's IPMG, despite his interest in a new (gravure-equipped) plant. Or perhaps, making a case to shareholders for further investment. At least Brian McCarthy would be able to tell them he tried. And if they were to knock him back, a trip to North America would present a stark reminder of what happens to print publishers who neglect their knitting.