The Independent and its Sunday sister title will cut a quarter of their editorial staff as management attempts to save ten million pounds in what many are calling one of the most brutal cuts to hit the United Kingdom newspaper industry in recent years. By early 2009, a total of 90 employees out of 424 in its London office will be made redundant.

The majority of the cuts – approximately 60 jobs – will come from the 250 editorial staff. Simon Kelner, managing editor of Independent News and Media UK, said that there was no other way to safeguard the future of the newspapers. According to Kelner, the business had been struggling with the decline in advertising and circulation as the effects of the recession hit.

There is also structural pressure from the migration of revenues and readers onto the Internet. Analysts believe that the titles are losing up to ten million pounds a year. Most of the redundancies will probably be in its production processes, in particular sub-editors. The Independent and Independent on Sunday have the smallest circulations of any quality UK newspaper and lose less than The Guardian, Observer, and The Times.

Newspaper and magazine publishers from Los Angeles and New York had reason to be happy the morning after the United States election. The print industry has lost readers to the Internet for years, seen steep declines in advertising revenue, publication closures, and round after round of layoffs. When Barack Obama was elected as the next President of the United States there were sold-out newsstands throughout the country.

Some newsstand operators were forced to compile handwritten waiting lists for special election issues of certain newspapers and magazines like Newsweek and Time. It is a temporary reversal of fortune that the print industry hopes to capitalize on up to and beyond the inauguration. Consumers’ Obama obsession is an adrenalin shot to print media’s sense of self-worth and self-image.

With Obama’s win, there is a certain tangible quality that cannot be translated online for big momentous events like this one. The New York Times initially underestimated the demand for its election edition. On three different occasions it has had to return to the presses for a total of 405,000 copies more than its typical weekday output of 220,000 newspapers. On November 5, USA Today published 380,000 additional copies but still sold out across the country. Since then, it has printed thousands more for purchase.

RACAD Tech, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet based solutions and launched their Web accessible custom print driver for the print industry in April 2008. They have recently evolved their GoPrint2 service into a composite suite of Web-to-Print solutions.

The GoPrint2 FTP replacement module will help printers handle large files from clients without the overhead of buying FTP servers or expensive FTP services. New features include dynamically generated file upload pages that display the printer’s store information. Printers now have the option to facilitate file transfers to their own FTP servers or have GoPrint2.com store the files for them.

GoPrint2.com is an ideal solution for independent businesses such as digital shops, sign shops, trade printers and inplant operations. Print providers and their customers are conscious of the difficulties associated with sending very large files. Using FTP servers can be quite limiting, expensive, and time consuming. GoPrint2.com eliminates the expenses and limitations of FTP services by gearing their service to the Web-to-Print market.

The editor of The Peninsula, Qatar’s leading English daily, has promised that, despite the newspaper’s new look, their commitment to serious news, both local and international, will remain the same. Their news team – dealing with local, business and sports – will continue to bring relevant and informative coverage.

The Peninsula’s new design is intended to enhance their content and give the reader a better experience. They have made numerous changes in an effort to better connect with and meet the needs of their growing and increasingly diverse readership. They have chosen a new typeface that is modern and active while also pleasing to the eye. They have added more color and infographics and simplified the design in order to place an emphasis on news and information.

The Peninsula has increased the number of pages up to 48 and divided the newspaper into four distinct sections: News, Business, Sport, and Oasis. They have also entered into exclusive arrangements with newspapers all over the world in order to bring its readers up-to-date information. They have joined forces with The Financial Times, the world’s most respected business newspaper, to bring its readers their exclusive news and analysis.

Publication has stopped of the monthly magazine Trends and the weekly tabloid Umthunywa by the state-controlled Zimbabwe newspapers group due to critical shortages of newsprint. The shortage has severely affected the group’s operations as their newspapers – The Herald, The Saturday Herald, The Chronicle, The Saturday Chronicle and others – have been reduced to shadows of their former selves.

The shortage of newsprint is affecting the company and forced the group to scale down operations. Nothing much can be done as the shortage is affecting the entire print industry and, as a result, the newspapers in Zimbabwe are getting thinner and thinner. Trends and Umthunywa are temporarily out of circulation.

The country’s leading newsprint manufacturer, Mutare Board and Paper Mills (MBPM) is failing to produce adequate paper due to shortages of fuel and raw materials in the country. This situation is being compounded by the erratic electricity supply. As a result, MBPM is importing almost everything and their prices are quite high. Some of their customers do not approve of their cash prices for newsprint and so the company has resorted to the fuel coupon payment system.