That new total in the past five months alone is approaching nearly 10% of Gannett's 85 U.S. newspapers. With today's confirmed shutdown at the Fort Collins Coloradoan, I count at least eight production plants closed via consolidation with sister sites.The Coloradoan's Pat Ferrier reports in a story, now on the paper's site: "The move will end more than a century of newspaper printing in the city and comes at a time when newspapers nationwide are being challenged by the economic recession and the ongoing migration of advertising to the Internet."
The Coloradoan would be among the few Gannett sites contracting with a non-GCI plant. The other seven, all shifting to nearby Gannett print sites: Asheville, N.C.; Battle Creek, Mich.; Clarksville, Tenn.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Mountain Home, Ark.; Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Richmond, Ind.
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Who will be
ReplyDeleteNEXT?
Poughkeepsie shuttered its press and is now being printed by Westchester.
ReplyDeleteAdd these additional closing in the last two years and you get an idea where Gannett is headed as they’re walking away from commercial work too
ReplyDeleteRichmond, IN (1/09)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Livonia, MI
Burlington, VT
...and Ithaca, Elmira & Binghamton, NY – for new plant in Binghamton.
Daily Record closed press a year ago and now prints at a non-Gannett facility
ReplyDelete7:20 and 9:04 am: Thanks! I've fixed those.
ReplyDeleteTen newspaper sites in Wisconsin have been printed at three press sites for years now.
ReplyDeleteHow's that working?
Meh.
You missed one from above....The Palladium-Item in Richmond, Indiana shuttered it's plant two months ago moving that paper's printing and the USA Today to Indy.
ReplyDeleteAnd, what happened to a large amount of the $3 million plus in commercial printing? Competitors are profiting from it.
Thanks, 12:06 pm!
ReplyDeleteWho will be
ReplyDeleteNEXT? 3/11/2009 4:49 AM?
I don't know, but this is just another step in newspaper history. Does anyone remember "back shop" and "paste-up" people who were laid off when pagination took over? Before that, they had taken over from the people who operated linotype operators and people who built pages with hot lead.
New things come along and replace old things. We long for the old ways, bathing in nostalgia. But in people and things, the future belongs to the young ... until they, eventually, become old, too.
I'm having a senior moment ... what is the name of the machine that printed the AP photos? I loved those muddy prints of baseball second basemen frozen in the air over sliding runners. Policicos, glamor pusses, tough guys, movie stars, down and outers. The photos were their few minutes of fame.
ReplyDeleteWith the Detroit News and Free Press printing only 32-page one section papers for single copy four days of the week, Lansing and Port Huron could be absorbed into their facility in Sterling Heights.
ReplyDeleteYes, newspaper operations have changed. But, I'm not alone in my amusement of hwatching how willingly Gannett walks away from parts of its operations that frankly, they should be the low-cost leader in.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in regard to printing, they've walked away from not only the profits commercial revenues bring, but also the lower costs in which they are able to print their own newspapers by it.
Gannett hasn't really appeared to care about the details of its costs, but in the end, its turning out to catch up with them...this will to in certain markets.
fwiw ... Des Moines recently started printing the Wall Street Journal after the Journal closed down its printing plant here.
ReplyDelete4:18...
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about an ECRM image setter?
Back in the day, the desk editor would select, it would go to the ECRM and we'd take the pictures out of the tray, wax 'em, and put them down on the flats.
Anyone have any idea what the hell they are doing with all these presses? Strikes me that unleashing presses on this market is inviting competitors to set up shop and eat your lunch. These newspapers are mostly monopolies in their towns or cities, and obviously want to protect their standing in the community. Or am I plain wrong, and misunderstand newspaper economics in 2009?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the Muncie Star Press. It is printed at the Indiapolis Star printing facility
ReplyDeleteCN press was sold for scrap - took weeks to disassemble it and haul it away. I wonder how much they got for it.
ReplyDelete9:02, WTF... Burlington still prints in Burlington. Check your facts before you start rumours. There are enough of them out there already.
ReplyDeleteThe ECRM came later. I think he is talking about the AP Laser Photo machines. Not sure what it stood for but we called the LDs. If I remember correctly, but I can not remember what the D stands for.
ReplyDeleteThat the plan. To consolidate printing where there are multiple papers that are close to each other.
ReplyDeleteThis story says, "The Coloradoan would be among the few Gannett sites contracting with a non-GCI plant," and it names Poughkeepsie, which is now printing in Westchester. Westchester is GCI. Maybe those other seven were just representative of the total presses that have been shut down, rather than specifically non-GCI contracts.
ReplyDeleteAsheville prints in Greenville, which is a Gannett site.
ReplyDelete7:10 PM - You're correct about enough rumours out there, but Burlington closing a printing plant is not one of them as they did shut one down.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/bqbauq
iowa city press-citizen consolidated printing to Des Moines Register in June 2008. pretty much a disaster, costs more and paper is NEVER on time, when it snows big, forget it. many local businesses now call it the des moines press-citizen.
ReplyDeleteAnon@424P: Lansing is now printing the Battle Creek paper as well as the LSJ.
ReplyDeleteI used to work at the Coloradoan. The press is located in the old building, next door to a new office building opened in 2004 -- built with "room to expand" but since the comapny has dumped 45 percent of its positions. I've heard the press' destiny is to become scrap metal. I bet they wanted to sell the old building to help with the mortgage on the new.
ReplyDeleteI work at the Coloradoan. The move to outsource press and post-press operations will result in a higher overall cost of production, much in the same way that outsourcing ad production to 2AdPro has resulted in tripling the cost of ad production here. The corporate accountant's spreadsheets clearly show a cost savings, but the spreadsheets were created by people who don't have all the facts and figures. The hidden costs that are ignored in the spreadsheets pile up quickly and turn into another excuse for more layoffs. The only advantage to Gannett of all this outsourcing is the eventual closure of the local newspaper offices, while still being able to produce a "local" paper from a centralized corporate hub. I'm sure that will be as financially successful as all of Gannett's other plans to increase profitability and stock value.
ReplyDelete