The New England Media Group said it signed a multi-year commercial printing contract with GateHouse Media Inc. to print two of its daily newspapers in the Boston market, The Patriot Ledger of Quincy and The Enterprise of Brockton. It is expected that The Boston Globe will begin printing both papers in the fall, at the conclusion of GateHouse Media’s negotiations with its unions.

“We are very pleased to welcome GateHouse Media as a commercial printing customer,” said Robert F. Burns, senior vice president of production for The Globe.  “We continue to optimize our printing capabilities to assure quality production for all our customers, readers and advertisers.”

The NEMG has been expanding its commercial printing business over the past few years. It began printing the New England distribution of the (New York) Daily News in 2005, and last year added The Boston Metro and New York Post as customers.

The publisher has three printing plants that house its presses for The Boston Globe, the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Mass., and the New England editions of The New York Times.

Meantime, the Boston Herald reported its executives have discussed outsourcing the paper’s printing operations, possibly to Dow Jones & Co.

Herald Publisher Patrick J. Purcell was identified in the story saying that a Dow Jones plant in Chicopee, Mass., might be tapped to produce the paper. Purcell said the move to seek an alternative production site was fueled in part by costs associated with maintaining the Herald’s “antiquated” production system.

The paper said discussions with Dow Jones and other third-party sources were in the preliminary stage and that any final decision would hinge on reaching accommodation with unionized press workers at the Herald.