DOZENS of families are facing an uncertain Christmas after the owners of a Didcot printer said they were looking at closing it down.

Harmsworth Printing, on Old Milton Road, is under threat of closure after owners DMG Media, which produces the Daily Mail, said it was examining the possibility of have work carried out elsewhere.

Although a decision has yet to be made or a closure date announced, it is expected the roughly 80 staff who work there will be told if they will keep their jobs after a consultation concludes later this month.

A spokesman for DMG Media said: "DMG Media is proposing the closure of the site and that a portion of the work handled at Didcot would be moved to DMG Media’s Thurrock print site, in Essex, while a number of third-party options were being explored for the remainder."

The group, which also produces the Metro, has closed a number of sites over the past six years as it downsizes.

In 2010, it closed its Plymouth site, which saw 90 staff lose their jobs and in 2009 the Bristol plant was closed with 88 staff losing their jobs.

Grimsby and Leicester were also both closed in 2009 and Hull was shut a few years previously.

DMG Media is a subsidiary of the Daily Mail & General Trust.

Mayor of Didcot Steve Connel said that if the closure of the site went ahead it would break his heart.

He said: "As a businessman I can understand how the decline in people reading physical books or papers could force companies like DMG Media to look at cost cutting.

"But as a family man it truly breaks my heart to think about the hundreds of people who will be effected by the decision.

"The reason I say hundreds is because it is not just the workers but their partners and children who will be wondering where the next paycheck will come from.

"I just hope that they are being well enough compensated so that they can still enjoy Christmas."

The £82 million Didcot plant is set on a 10-acre site and was opened in 2006, hitting full production in October 2007.

It is understood that Trinity Mirror, which announced the closure of its Cardiff site last week, is being considered as a potential customer to take over the work currently produced at Didcot but there has been no formal confirmation of this.