In anticipation of our new website going live in the next few weeks, printweek.com was migrated to new servers early this morning. Unfortunately this caused a number of stability issues on the current site that resulted in the website being out of action for much of today. While we attempted to fix the problem we switched the website back to the old servers, unfortunately these also developed a fault during the migration and this caused some users to be redirected to the website of our sister title HR Magazine. The good news is that the stability problems have now been resolved, which will free us up to look for someone to pin the blame on. Apologies from the PrintWeek team for any inconvenience...

The 244pp bumber issue (up from an average 116pp) will be published on 13 November, the day before Prince Charles’ 65th birthday, and will be the first national publication to have been guest edited by The Prince. It features a 250gsm silk cover stock, instead of its usual 200gsm wood free coated, with additional spot UV varnishing, gold foil blocking and embossing. The cover was produced by Ipswich-based Ancient House Press (AHP) while the body copy was printed and bound by Polestar Chantry in Wakefield. A spokeswoman for IPC Media confirmed that the print run had been increased for the commemorative issue, but could not release specific details of the run length. Country Life‘s average circulation was 38,246 in 2012. Producing the issue was an eight month project involving meetings with HRH The Prince of Wales and his designated team. In addition to writing the leader, HRH The Prince of Wales oversaw the content for the issue, including selecting contributors, suggesting features and contributing to reader favourites. The magazine includes an exclusive feature on the garden at Birkhall – The Prince’s Scottish residence on the Balmoral Estate – written by Alan Titchmarsh, and on The Prince’s home in Wales, as well as HRH’s views on art, books, food and the countryside charities he supports. The Prince also commissioned an architect from his Foundation for Building Community to design a solution to deliver affordable rural housing. Mark Hedges, editor of Country Life, said: “The commemorative edition is a unique record of The Prince’s love of the countryside and his commitment to preserving its way of life. “Since it’s launch in 1897, Country Life has been privileged to be given access to the Royal Family at times of national celebrations and we are delighted that the Prince allowed us to mark his 65th birthday by guest editing Country Life – a present to share with the entire nation.”...

The deal, which was first announced in June, was completed on Friday (1 November) with 91 UK Xerox staff transferring to Antalis UK under TUPE as a result. As well as the UK, the European-wide deal encompasses Xerox’s office businesses in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The new division, Antalis Document Supplies, will be headed up in the UK and Ireland by general manager Doug Bishop, a Xerox veteran of 38 years who has led the company’s UK office paper business for the past six years. He will report to Hunter. The Xerox brand name will continue to be used on the 1,000-strong product portfolio inherited by Antalis, which, as well as paper, includes wide-format and non-paper substrates. While Hunter declined to reveal the precise scale of the UK Xerox office operation, he said that a “good proportion” of the €300m sales it would add to Antalis’ European operations would be generated in the UK. Prior to the completion of the deal, Antalis UK had sales of around £476m and 980 staff. It operates two central distribution centres and 14 regional branches across the UK and Ireland. Antalis currently markets 14,000 products. However, following the completion of the Xerox deal this will increase to 15,000. Hunter hinted that over time there may be some consolidation of the product range, but this would be in consultation with customers. He also signalled that Antalis would work closely on new product development with Xerox. However, he stressed that the integration of the Xerox business would be carefully structured, to ensure continuity for customers. “We’ve got two very good businesses here, so we have the luxury of time to look at a really sensible way of moving forward, to make sure we get it right,” he said. Following the completion of the sale, Hunter said that there are no immediate plans to reduce headcount, although he added that, as with all companies, the cost base of the business is under constant review. “The important thing for customers is that it is business as usual. The people they spoke to at Xerox last week will be the same people they speak to at Antalis UK this week,” said Hunter. He said the initial focus would be in supply chain synergies, including purchasing, with the integration of the rest of the back office functions following shortly afterwards. According to Bishop while the two companies have a number of shared customers “when we looked at the alignment, we’ve not had that much of overlap”, which according to Hoyne represents a significant opportunity for Antalis. “Because we have such varied components to our business, cross-selling...

The 244pp bumber issue (up from an average 116pp) will be published on 13 November, the day before Prince Charles’ 65th birthday, and will be the first national publication to have been guest edited by The Prince. It features a 250gsm silk cover stock, instead of its usual 200gsm wood free coated, with additional spot UV varnishing, gold foil blocking and embossing. The cover was produced by Ipswich-based Ancient House Press (AHP) while the body copy was printed and bound by Polestar Chantry in Wakefield. A spokeswoman for IPC Media confirmed that the print run had been increased for the commemorative issue, but could not release specific details of the run length. Country Life‘s average circulation was 38,246 in 2012. Producing the issue was an eight month project involving meetings with HRH The Prince of Wales and his designated team. In addition to writing the leader, HRH The Prince of Wales oversaw the content for the issue, including selecting contributors, suggesting features and contributing to reader favourites. The magazine includes an exclusive feature on the garden at Birkhall – The Prince’s Scottish residence on the Balmoral Estate – written by Alan Titchmarsh, and on The Prince’s home in Wales, as well as HRH’s views on art, books, food and the countryside charities he supports. The Prince also commissioned an architect from his Foundation for Building Community to design a solution to deliver affordable rural housing. Mark Hedges, editor of Country Life, said: “The commemorative edition is a unique record of The Prince’s love of the countryside and his commitment to preserving its way of life. “Since it’s launch in 1897, Country Life has been privileged to be given access to the Royal Family at times of national celebrations and we are delighted that the Prince allowed us to mark his 65th birthday by guest editing Country Life – a present to share with the entire nation.”...

The deal, which was first announced in June, was completed on Friday (1 November) with 91 UK Xerox staff transferring to Antalis UK under TUPE as a result. As well as the UK, the European-wide deal encompasses Xerox’s office businesses in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The new division, Antalis Document Supplies, will be headed up in the UK and Ireland by general manager Doug Bishop, a Xerox veteran of 38 years who has led the company’s UK office paper business for the past six years. He will report to Hunter. The Xerox brand name will continue to be used on the 1,000-strong product portfolio inherited by Antalis, which, as well as paper, includes wide-format and non-paper substrates. While Hunter declined to reveal the precise scale of the UK Xerox office operation, he said that a “good proportion” of the €300m sales it would add to Antalis’ European operations would be generated in the UK. Prior to the completion of the deal, Antalis UK had sales of around £476m and 980 staff. It operates two central distribution centres and 14 regional branches across the UK and Ireland. Antalis currently markets 14,000 products. However, following the completion of the Xerox deal this will increase to 15,000. Hunter hinted that over time there may be some consolidation of the product range, but this would be in consultation with customers. He also signalled that Antalis would work closely on new product development with Xerox. However, he stressed that the integration of the Xerox business would be carefully structured, to ensure continuity for customers. “We’ve got two very good businesses here, so we have the luxury of time to look at a really sensible way of moving forward, to make sure we get it right,” he said. Following the completion of the sale, Hunter said that there are no immediate plans to reduce headcount, although he added that, as with all companies, the cost base of the business is under constant review. “The important thing for customers is that it is business as usual. The people they spoke to at Xerox last week will be the same people they speak to at Antalis UK this week,” said Hunter. He said the initial focus would be in supply chain synergies, including purchasing, with the integration of the rest of the back office functions following shortly afterwards. According to Bishop while the two companies have a number of shared customers “when we looked at the alignment, we’ve not had that much of overlap”, which according to Hoyne represents a significant opportunity for Antalis. “Because we have such varied components to our business, cross-selling...