Co-operative Press — BrandWiki

Co-operative Press

Overview

Co-operative Press Limited

type	Registered Society (1585R)
industry	News media Co-operative movement
hq location	Holyoake House, Manchester, England
founded	1871. Incorporated 19 March 1873.‡R1R‡
revenue	£252,372‡R2R‡ (2018)
assets	£315,531‡R2R‡
assets year	2018
former name	Co-operative Newspaper Society (1871–1921) National Co-operative Publishing Society (1921–1935)
predecessor	North of England Co-operative Printing Society (1869),
key people	Elaine Dean (Chair) Richard Bickle (Secretary)

The Co-operative Press is a co-operative whose principal activity is the publication of Co-op News, the news magazine of the global co-operative movement. The society's stated mission is to "connect, champion and challenge the global co-operative movement".[3] The co-operative's members are the subscribers of Co-op News.

History

Founded in Manchester in 1873, the Co-operative Press is still headquartered in the city, at Holyoake House.[1]

The society was first incorporated as the Co-operative Newspaper Society by a group of co-operative societies to take on the publishing of The Co-operative News. Printing was carried out by the Co-operative Printing Society.

In 1921 the society merged with the Scottish Co-operative Newspaper Society and renamed itself as the National Co-operative Publishing Society, before taking on its current name – the Co-operative Press – in 1935. That year, substantial funding was finally secured with assistance from the sector's federal bodies, allowing the paper to be extensively reorganised. According to G.D.H. Cole in A Century of Co-operation, it had come to be regarded as one of the most efficiently managed newspapers in Britain, and, from a democratic perspective, a leading example. The editor until 1942 was Mr S. R. Elliot, who assembled notable contributors from the period.

The Press was embroiled in a labour dispute in the 1960s. As outlined in A History of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades, the Co-operative Press employed 150 production staff at its Manchester printing facility, which produced magazines and general print items. Prior to the introduction of web-offset presses in 1966, the majority of work was conducted on letterpress machines managed by machine minders and assistants affiliated with the NGA and SOGAT (Division 1), respectively. A minor lithography division existed at the facility managed by ASLP members. In 1964, the company declared its plan to implement a web-offset press for the production of several periodicals and, subsequently, a tabloid newspaper. Representatives from ASLP, NGA, and SOGAT were scheduled to examine the press at the manufacturer's facility. Since some of the work for the press had previously been printed using a rotary letterpress machine, the Co-op determined that the crew for the new press should consist of craftsmen from both the ASLP and the NGA, together with assistants from SOGAT (Division 1). Initially, these arrangements were sanctioned by the three unions, and in January 1965, personnel levels were established, stipulating four assistants, which would escalate to seven with the utilisation of two files. The Co-operative Press could not coordinate combined meetings with all the unions involved, and when a stalemate occurred at the branch level, the disagreement was escalated to the national level. The ASLP persisted in dismissing the notion that SOGAT members should execute their customary responsibilities on the web-offset presses, which they typically performed on the rotary letterpress machine at the Co-operative Press. On 24 February 1966, management notified the ASLP and the NGA that the press will commence operations under locally approved circumstances, without prejudice to any potential national agreement. The equipment remained inactive as SOGAT declined to accept this arrangement. The corporation notified the BFMP of the dispute, which recommended referring the issue to a Joint Conciliation Committee of the Joint Industrial Council. The ASLP and the NGA notified the P&KTF that they would abstain from attending any meeting if SOGAT were present, as this would effectively acknowledge SOGAT's assertions. Despite the resumption of negotiations, a resolution had not been achieved by the time the Cameron Committee commenced its hearings. In July 1966, all parties ultimately consented to an arrangement, and the machine commenced functioning.[13]