Fairfax country titles return to the bush

The newspaper giant is pulling out two presses from Chullora and sending the work back to Dubbo.

Fairfax will be decommissioning both C2 and D presses to allow them to be transferred to another site effective 24 December 2011. No staff will be directly affected by the equipment shift.

The return of the titles was flagged when they were transferred to the city plant to allow upgrading of the Dubbo print plant.

According to Paul Paters, general manager for Fairfax Media Printing Sydney, the capacity requirements at Chullora have been reduced.

“It’s all about better utilizing our equipment within the Fairfax Group. We are in the process of a print rationalisation review, which is a lot broader than just decommissioning some presses,” he says.

Paters notes that the regional newspapers the two presses produce will be transferred back to Dubbo by 12 December. The country titles making their return to the bush include Lithgow Mercury, Western Advocate, Western Times, Bathurst Domain, Oberon Review and Blayney Chronicle, all of which were moved to Chullora from Dubbo in September 2011.

At the time of the shift a Fairfax spokesperson remarked that the six-title transfer would be temporary, and that the printing work would make its way back in due time.

The moves comes as speculation intensifies about News Ltd and Fairfax's plans to combine their print production facilities.