One of the first contract customers of Rupert Murdoch’s giant Newsprinters print site north of London, Telegraph Media Group has signed for a further three years.

Commissioned almost 16 years ago, the News Corp business – which counts News UK as a customer – prints and delivers more than 20 million newspapers a week for publishers including the Financial Times and DMG Media.

The deal to extend its exclusive print contract with TMG continues a partnership that will continue for three years beyond the current contract terms, from September 2023, and will see Newsprinters continue to procure newsprint for it.

Things have changed since News bought 12 of manroland’s five-tower Colorman XXL triple-wide presses for the showpiece Broxbourne site – capable of printing a million newspapers an hour – and another seven for its Merseyside and Scottish plants.

Notably, print orders have shrunk since 2015, when it was estimated that with Sunday editions and contract work, the presses were producing 40 million newspapers a week, two-thirds of the nation’s total.

Currently Telegraph Media Group is part of a shared primary distribution contract operated with publishers including News UK and the FT. Newsprinters says the new deal creates an opportunity to progress these arrangements into the future, “generating both cost efficiencies and a positive environmental impact through reduced trucks on the road”.