Freo Herald lashes Seven West Media, prints two-page paper on A3 sheet

The editor of the Fremantle Herald and Perth Voice has taken an extraordinary public swipe at Seven West Media after negotiations with the media giant over a printing contract failed, leaving the independent local paper without a printed edition for the first time in 35 years.

On a two-page edition printed on A3 paper and published on the papers’ Facebook pages, publisher Andrew Smith accused Seven West Media’s printing subsidiary West Australian Newspapers’ Colourpress of trying to force small independent papers like his into lengthy contracts.

The A3 two-page edition was placed at the Freo Herald’s bulk drop points.Credit: Cameron Myles

Smith said he received an email from Colourpress on Monday telling him both their papers had been removed from its printing schedule after negotiations broke down.

He claimed the company was throwing its weight around to prevent his paper from taking up a contract with a new printing press recently purchased by a consortium of businesses led by western suburbs-based Post Newspapers.

“In a week of high drama our printer, West Australian Newspapers, slammed the door in our face, and yours, refusing to put the Herald on its print press. And all because there’s a new printer in town,” Smith said.

“Over four weeks of discussions, we’d told this then-monopoly WA printer we did not want to be forced to sign any lock-in, two-year contract, albeit with a faint sweetener of print costs held to current levels.”

Smith claimed Seven West Media was trying to lock the paper into a contract to prevent it from dealing with any other printer in WA or beyond.

“The reason for The West’s hard-knuckle approach was to put up a blocker for any clients who might be tempted to shift allegiance to the new printer cranking up in Perth this week,” he said.

“After 35 years working with many printers and their usual friendly, can-do way (including The West), we have now had a box-seat experience of the sheer commercial brutality a monopoly in any industry can play.

“The West rejected our print job and our money and cast us out despite [their] long-standing commercial heritage in the industry for tackling any work ‘where there’s a buck to be made’.”

“In our view, The West’s compulsory ‘lock-in offer’, with the lethal ‘no-print’ sting in its tail, was very unfair and extremely rude to boot.”

Smith used their office printer and a commercial printer to distribute thousands of copies of the two-page A3 edition to the paper’s bulk drop stations.

A West Australian Newspapers spokesman said they had reached new long-term deals with 19 other mastheads, including for News Corporation and that the Herald’s desire for a shorter arrangement was not acceptable.

“In relation specifically to the Fremantle Herald, their 12-month printing contract ended on June 30. WAN attempted to strike a new two-year contract in good faith, at a flat rate, but the publisher declined to take up the offer, insisting instead on demanding a week-by-week arrangement,” he said.

“For obvious reasons relating to staff and resources, that is not acceptable.”

The spokesman said he wished the independent papers choosing to have their papers printed elsewhere all the best.

He said Colourpress and West Australian Newspapers rescued several publishers without a printing press following the shutdown of the IVE printing press in Mandurah in 2023.

Post editor Bret Christian unveiled the new printing press, Fair Maiden, in May in an attempt to tackle Seven West Media’s monopoly following the IVE shutdown.

The Australian Financial Review – which, along with this masthead, falls under the Nine Publishing umbrella – ended its print edition in WA in May last year after Colourpress doubled the cost of its contract.

In May, WAtoday reported the paper was mulling a print edition return to WA using the Fair Maiden.

The south-eastern suburbs-based Examiner Newspapers and eastern suburbs-based Echo Newspaper have both jumped ship to Fair Maiden.

Smith said the Herald would survive thanks to its online presence.

“Without the huge growth of the Herald/Voice online e-news over the last two years, the much-loved Chook could well have been a dead duck today,” he said.

“Or worse, a much-diminished newsroom media company, if we’d been forced to our knees to sign a prejudicial contract which would have prevented us from testing the print market for two years.”

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