Production manager Joe Tone (left) with members of the Tuam Herald team who visited Celtic Media Pre-Press at Blackhall Place in Mullingar last week.

New design jobs are confirmed for Mullingar centre

New jobs are being created in Mullingar through the expansion of the Celtic Media Pre-Press Centre, home of the Westmeath Examiner.


Two of the country’s oldest local newspapers – the Nenagh Guardian and Tuam Herald – will shortly be published out of the Celtic Media Pre-Press centre in Blackhall Place, Mullingar.


They will then be printed at the media company’s own print plant outside Navan in an outsourcing of operations by the Nenagh and Tuam-based newspapers.


Celtic Media Pre-Press, under the direction of production manager, Joe Tone, and deputy production manager, Mary McLoughlin, will by mid-June provide advertising graphic design and editorial page make-up for four leading non-group local newspapers – apart from Celtic Media Group’s own six titles.

Pre-Press (production) staff at the Mullingar centre returned in the past year to a full working week with six extra roles created since the group won its first “outsourcing” contract from The Connaught Telegraph in Castlebar in 2011. They added the Sligo Weekender title in May of 2012.


Announcing the new contracts, Frank Mulrennan, chief executive of Celtic Media Group, said: “We are very pleased that our total solution offering of high quality pre-press; digital update and printing has won us new business from newspapers with 175 years of publishing history each.”


He said: “I want to compliment our Mullingar-based colleagues on the calibre of their work that has led to the winning of these new contracts. We have now grown this centre to 16 people, with a total capital investment of €1.3m in our integrated publishing system.”


Celtic Media Group is owned by its Irish management under a buy-out from the former Scottish investors concluded last June.


The Group, employing 125 people in total, owns the Westmeath Examiner; Westmeath Independent in Athlone; Offaly Independent; The Anglo-Celt in Cavan; Meath Chronicle and Forum in Navan.


It prints its own newspapers at the Mullaghboy Industrial Estate, outside Navan, where the leading contract is that of the Irish Mirror and Sunday Mirror titles.