Former Goss Australia sales manager Matt Hancock will be poised to play a part in Fairfax’s metro print reorganisation with a move to the company’s Ballarat print site.

He returned to Fairfax Media this month after 18 years with now-subsidiary Rural Press and the last four-and-a-half with Goss. He had been responsible for sales, marketing and customer relations for newspaper and commercial customers in Australia and New Zealand.

In a LinkedIn update, he reports the move to a new role as site manager in Ballarat, Victoria.

Fairfax Media has announced plans to close its $200 million Age Print Centre in the Melbourne suburb of Tullamarine, and print metro titles including The Age and the Australian Financial Review at regional print sites.

As part of preparations for similar changes in Sydney, it has lodged plans for a major upgrade of its North Richmond, NSW, print site to accommodate additional large newspaper presses. Details of similar plans for Ballarat – the nearest regional plant to Melbourne – have not yet emerged.

Hancock worked as a printer with Rural Press from 1990-2008, with duties ranging from “basic running of the press and putting ink on paper”, to travelling to other sites to assist in problem solving, print training and helping with new press installations. He was part of the installation team for the current Ballarat print centre in 2003, assisting in the installation and commissioning of the first six manroland Uniset 75 towers and helping to train the printers on unit, folder and system operation. 

“As part of the move, I am selling up and relocating to Ballarat permanently with my wife and three-year-old son Thomas,” he says.