Some very good news for the paper industry...

 Back to books - Sweden's schools cutting back on digital learning

Sweden is shifting its schools away from screens and back to physical books and paper. The government is making this change to fix falling reading and writing scores. The Scandinavian country is spending over €100 million to buy printed textbooks and is even looking to ban mobile phones in schools and seems in sharp contrast to Denmark's recent dismantling of their postal service Read Here

You can read the BBC article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly0vk77vdko

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.04.2026

V&A censored catalogues after demands by Chinese printer

Today Printweek reports that a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by The Guardian has revealed that the Victoria and Albert Museum agreed to remove images from one of its exhibition catalogues after requests from its Chinese printing contractor.

The museum was asked by C&C Offset Printing to delete a map that did not comply with the Chinese communist party's censorship requirements.

The map, which was intended for the catalogue accompanying the upcoming V&A exhibition Music is Black, depicts a 1930s illustration of British Empire trade routes.

https://www.printweek.com/content/news/va-museum-yields-to-chinese-printer-demands

You can read The Guardian article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/apr/14/v-and-a-censored-catalogues-demands-chinese-printer

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.04.2026

IPS Manchester

The Independent
 Paper Show is coming to Manchester! Yes, this June, the first ever Manchester edition of the IPS will be presented at Soho House and all are welcome.

Fenner Paper, together with a whole host of other paper companies will be presenting their ranges. We do hope you will come and see us.

The dates for your diary are as follows:

June 9th: 2pm – 6pm + Networking drinks (5pm – 7pm)

June 10th: 12pm – 5pm

Register now... https://papershow.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.03.2026

A pivotal year ahead in paper

Towards the end of last year two large paper 'supergroups' in the international arena of paper manufacturers, UPM and Sappi, announced plans to create a new joint venture company that would encompass their European graphic paper operations - 20 paper mills are involved with a combined production capacity of nearly 6 million tonnes per annum.

Is this good news or bad news for the paper industry...?

Below is an excellent article written by Jo Francis at Printweek magazine with the background to the joint venture. You can read all about it here: 
https://www.printweek.com/content/briefing/a-pivotal-year-ahead-in-paper

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.02.2026

Danish postal service to stop delivering letters after 400 years

The first post in 2026 which is really rather sad...

The Danish Post Office (PostNord) has ended postal deliveries on 30 December.

Over the last year they have slowly been removing the postboxes and they have now all been removed. You can read the article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/21/denmark-postnord-postal-delivery-letters-society

and watch on the BBC here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls-_j2A1RfA

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.01.2026

Fenner Paper Diary 2026

If you are a user of the Fenner Paper ranges and therefore one of our wonderful customers, you may well have already received one of our wonderful new 2026 diaries...

The cover has been designed by Theo Hersey, graphic artist and letterpress printer based at The Typography Workshop in London.

The 4pp cover is printed on a few of our ranges including Creative Print, Diamond 270gsm, Crush Kiwi 250gsm, Colorset Pineapple 270gsm and Shiro Echo White 250gsm. The 40pp text is printed in one colour, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which has a superb opacity and a good writing surface making this an ideal paper for a diary or notebook.

The text pages of the diary have been designed by long term collaborator and friend David Coates and as in previous years, the diary is 230x152mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format.

If you are one of our worthy clients (!), you should be receiving one of our diaries in the post. If you want to make sure you are in our address book, drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk. For people who aren't customers, they are available to buy through the St Bride Foundation here:

https://stbridelibrary.bigcartel.com/product/fenner-paper-diary-2026

Posted by Justin Hobson 9.12.2025

Jobs from the past - Number 182

Regular followers of this blog will know that for my first post of every month I try (but not always!) to publish a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by - this project is from 2014

PREEN LINE SS2014

This is the Spring/Summer 2014 look-book for Preen Line, which is the "contemporary line" range with the more economical price tag from London fashion house PREEN.

It's a lovely oversize 333x240mm, portrait, saddle stitched format. It is a 28pp "self cover". This means that it is printed on the same material throughout, so the cover is on the same weight as the text. It works well on this job as it feels really substantial. A big part of that is the format and the fact that it is printed on our Omnia 150gsm, which has a high bulk and therefore you really don't notice that the cover is no heavier ...and, most importantly, the text flows nicely in the hand and lies nice and flat.

As you can see from the images, there is lots of rich colour and blue is prevalent - and it just looks beautiful on the Omnia - just gorgeously even and crisp reproduction. In particular the images with CMYK dark areas - with lots of ink going down, looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the darker images as well, whilst retaining all the detail.

Design is by Mark and Chris Thomson at Studio Thomson. Photography is by Nick Dorey and the superb print by Push, although sadly (like many printers) they are no longer in operation.

https://www.preen.eu/
https://www.studiothomson.com/

https://www.nickdorey.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.11.2025