Journal to outsource printing to new St. Albert facility starting next summer
Edmonton Journal
August 12, 2012 5:00 PM
EDMONTON - The Journal will outsource the printing of its newspaper starting in 2013, publisher John Connolly announced Sunday.
Starting next summer, the print edition of the Journal will be printed at new facilities being built by Great West Newspapers, publisher of the St. Albert Gazette, in St. Albert. The change will provide the Journal with better reproduction, more colour and greater size flexibility for the print edition. It will also result in the closing of the Journal’s Eastgate printing plant and the loss of about 70 full-time jobs.
The Journal’s Eastgate plant opened in 1980 with new presses that were state of the art for the era. They were described as “Canada’s largest, most modern newspaper offset presses.” Since then, however, increased demand for colour and new technologies has made those 1980-vintage presses outdated.
New presses are prohibitively expensive, costing tens of millions of dollars. That has led many North American newspapers to outsource their printing operations as a way of improving quality and decreasing costs. According to Editor and Publisher magazine, more than 50 U.S. newspapers shut down their printing facilities between 2009 and 2011.
“We have mixed feelings about the change,” Connolly said. “We are excited about the new possibilities for more colour and better reproduction. However, we are sorry to be losing many of our dedicated Journal staffers.”
Connolly said departing employees would be given access to career counseling and other support services to help them through the transition. He said he foresaw no impact on the quality of the Journal or the timeliness of its delivery during the transition period between now and summer 2013.
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