More black and white than colour for Ireland

More black and white than colour for Ireland

Irish readers of the Guardian are not getting the full story. At least, not in full-colour. The Guardian was relaunched in September 2005 in a new compact size known as the 'Berliner', with the promise of full-colour on every page. The Guardian available in Ireland, however, has a significant amount of black and white pages. The daily supplement, G2, is stapled in the English version, but loose in Ireland. The newspaper spent £80 million in purchasing three new printing presses.

The newspaper distributed in Ireland is printed in Northern Ireland by Morton Newspapers Ltd, recently acquired by Johnston Press Plc. Paul McCauley, of Morton, explained that their printing press is the correct size to produce the new 'Berliner", but can only handle a maximum of 24 colour pages. Talking about upgrading to meet the requirements of the Guardian, he said "I like to think we'd update in the future", but it is just one of the newspapers that Morton prints. The Guardian's contract runs for two years.

David White