The two-year-old coldset web facility in Warwick is to be the first print casualty of News Corp Australia's acquisition of the former APN Australian Regional Media operation.

The southeast Queensland print site will revert to sheetfed production after Christmas, reprising the situation when the Daily News' Harris web press was shut down 17 years before in an earlier "consolidation".

News managing director of publishing operations Neil Monaghan says the move follows a review of operations across southeast Queensland following the APN ARM acquisition earlier this year.

Warwick coldset web printing work is being moved to the recently-upgraded Brisbane print centre in suburban Murarrie and the Yandina centre, acquired from APN, on the Sunshine Coast.

Monaghan says the Warwick changes do not impact the sheetfed, perfect binding, folding, stitching and making teams there. "However a small number of roles will be impacted.

"There is a strong effort going on to redeploy as many employees as possible to other print sites."

Workers at Warwick were advised of the changes this week.

"Consolidating our operations allows us to optimise our logistics network in southeast Queensland," he says.

The present Manugraph-equipped site went live in September 2015 when a 35,000 cph Cityline press from Ballina in northern NSW and other equipment was moved to Warwick, allowing the Toowoomba print site to be closed. At the time, APN said the development was creating an extra 30 jobs in the company. The paper had last been printed in Warwick in 1999 at the Daily News office building on Albion Street.

The Yandina print site - where the APN logo still overlooks the Bruce Highway - is already printing several of the group's regional daily, weekly and biweekly newspapers on its hybrid manroland Regioman/Uniset coldset/heatset press.

Pictured: The Warwick print site and (above) happier days as team members Roger O'Brien, Julian Stower, Matt Hoyes, Kay Manheller, Ben Mgaia, Willliam Carr, Gary Klintstrom and Aiden Carey celebrate the 2015 start-up (APN picture)