Polestar's clients include Hello!, Cosmopolitan, Grazia and the Radio Times Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Polestar, Britain's' largest independent printing company, has called in administrators, putting about 1,500 jobs at risk.
Polestar prints more than 50m units every week, including Hello!, Cosmopolitan, Grazia and the Radio Times, but has been running out of cash due to declining newspaper and magazine sales.
It collapsed on Wednesday after losing a vital contract with DMG Media, the publisher of the Daily Mail.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed as administrator and has started the search for potential buyers.
The collapse of Polestar comes in the same week as the retailers BHS and Austin Reed fell into administration.
Polestar appeared to secure a rescue deal last month when it was bought by Proventus Capital Partner. However, DMG Media said it would not transfer their contract to the new company.
Zelf Hussain, joint administrator at PwC, said: "We believe there is a strong underlying business within the group and we are focused on doing all we can to preserve value and maintain the business while we look to achieve a sale.
"We would welcome a dialogue with all interested parties and ask that suppliers and customers work with us to try to deliver a lasting solution for the business."
Polestar has a chequered history. It used to be owned by Robert Maxwell, the controversial media tycoon, and has run into trouble twice before. Four years ago the Pension Protection Fund was forced to wind down and take on the company's pension scheme, which had more than 8,000 members and a £529m deficit.
The company was formed in 1998 when the British Printing Company, which used to be owned by Maxwell, merged with Watmoughs, a publicly listed printer.
However, since then it has been under pressure from declining newspaper and magazine sales. In the past decade it has shrunk from operating 28 sites to seven and its workforce has fallen from more than 5,000 to 2,000. At the same time it has struggled under the weight of debt that stands at about £100m.
