Posted on 12/26/2008 5:06:46 AM PST by abb
It began as a trickle.
The February 2005 announcement that Copley Press Inc. would shutter presses used to print the Daily Breeze in Torrance, Calif., and transfer printing and packaging to Southwest Offset Printing was among the first tangible indications that outsourcing and plant consolidation would be a potent weapon with which publishers would corral costs.
Almost four years later, that trickle is a flood, with newspapers from coast to coast closing — or getting ready to close — their printing facilities as they race to control expenses.
Those closures include plants operated by some of the industry’s largest newspapers, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. The Los Angeles Times shuttered its San Fernando Valley plant in late 2005 just months after Tribune Co. spent millions of dollars upgrading the facility’s presses.
No slowing
Today, the torrent shows no sign of abating. Within the next 12 months, dozens of other plants will print their last newspapers, including those now operated by the San Francisco Chronicle, Palm Beach (Fla.) Post and (Boise) Idaho Statesman.
And shutting press and packaging facilities is only part of the equation. Publishers are also looking at ways to share other resources, including distribution and, most recently, newsgathering — even if that means partnering with rivals.
Just recently, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and Miami Herald said they’d work together to staff a Tallahassee bureau and even the arch-rival Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram are exploring ways to more efficiently deploy their respective reporting staffs.
“Publishers are looking at everything because they have to cut costs and/or increase revenues,” said Dario DiMare, president of Dario Designs Inc. DDI is involved with more than a dozen projects that span consolidation, outsourcing and partnering. “They range from the story to the porch,” DiMare said.
DiMare said his discussions with publishers show they are willing to evaluate partnerships they never would have considered before.
“Look at what’s happening with sharing news,” he said. “If you have a centralized news desk (among rival papers), then you’d be able to take some reporters and let them cover local news in their own communities instead of sending everyone to cover the same event.
More money
“The end game is not only is the paper saving money, it’s also producing a better product, and potentially generating some new revenue by exploiting their ability to cover local events, and that translates to better coverage,” DiMare said. “That’s a much better option than just cutting people.”
Even as publishers attempt to rein in costs, others are reaping the benefits. Tribune, for example, will make money and fill press capacity when the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale begins printing and packaging the Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach News and La Palma, publications owned by Cox Newspapers Inc.
The same is holding true at The (Baltimore) Sun, which began printing the rival Washington Times earlier this year; and at Dow Jones’ Chicopee, Mass., plant, which now produces the Boston Herald.
Pioneer Newspapers Inc. will also see its revenues grow when it starts printing rival McClatchy-owned newspapers in Boise and Bellingham, Wash.
Each of the papers that decided to silence its presses made a decision that printing is no longer a core competency, a conclusion more publishers are reaching, DiMare said.
“They’re saying they will consider whatever it takes to save money or generate revenue, including partnering, outsourcing or becoming the major printer for others in a region,” he said. “In other words, it’s either go big” — and have the advanced presses and postproduction necessary to print commercially as well as produce the core newspaper — “or go home.”
Shipping printing to an outside site, even if the same publisher owns it, brings with it other factors publishers have to assess.
Press times, and depending upon distance, transportation of the finished editions from a remote site, could put a damper on anticipated reader benefits and cost savings, respectively.
The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, for example, acknowledged its deadlines will be moved up after it moves printing and packaging to The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., 45 miles distant. The Palladium-Item in Richmond, Ind., is almost 75 miles from The Indianapolis Star, which will begin producing the paper next month.
And The Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, Ark., is being printed more than two hours away on the press operated by the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. Tom Tate, who serves as both general manager of The Bulletin and production/IT director at the News-Leader, told Newspapers & Technology he didn’t think the quality of the Mountain Home paper would be compromised by the daily journey. On the contrary, he said, the color and printing capabilities of the News-Leader’s manroland press would make The Bulletin an even more attractive option for readers and advertisers.
Dollars and sense
“It’s all about economics,” said Ken Harding, president of Harding Consulting Alliance, of the factors driving consolidation.
Harding said 70 percent of his business involves consolidation studies, including one just completed for McClatchy in which The News-Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., began printing the nearby Olympian in Olympia, Wash.
“Publishers are beginning to give up some things, so we’re seeing a greater compromise” in terms of rolling back deadlines and other considerations, he said.
“They don’t necessarily want to do it, but to drive revenues, they’re willing to do what they need to do,” he said, adding that he knows of one publisher evaluating whether or not to roll back deadlines by one hour. Another, he said, is mulling a 9 p.m. deadline of the main sheet with a later deadline to accommodate late sports scores.
An earlier deadline would give carriers more time to throw papers and also enable publishers to reduce the number of carriers needed for distribution.
Harding said plant-closing decisions don’t come easily. “It’s really difficult to make that move,” he said, even when a publisher is evaluating shifting production to a sister newspaper. “Once you make a decision to shut down a press, it’s intractable. You’re not going to be firing it up again.” Dow Jones to close more plants?
Dow Jones, which earlier this year closed a suburban Denver printing plant and is the midst of shuttering a suburban Chicago facility, could close another 10 of its 17 existing production plants over the next 15 months.
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told financial analysts last month that outsourcing printing and delivery of The Wall Street Journal and related publications to other printers and newspapers is likely as the company examines ways to reduce costs.
“Our plan over the next year, maybe 15 months, would be to close 10 of those and outsource that printing to other newspapers, both the printing and delivery,” Murdoch said.
Each closed facility could net Dow Jones annual savings in excess of $3 million, Murdoch said.
Murdoch also said the company is realizing savings by merging certain back-office functions at the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.
Dow Jones transferred printing of the Colorado edition of The Journal to the Denver Newspaper Agency while the Chicago Tribune reportedly will begin printing The Journal once the Naperville, Ill., print site is closed this month.
While the publisher is looking for ways to cut costs, it is upgrading operations at its South Brunswick, N.J., plant. It tapped Ferag and Goss International Corp. for postpress systems that will allow the publisher to place inserts in papers slated for delivery in the New York metropolitan area.
— Chuck Moozakis
Shutting down
Among newspapers that have said they will close, or have already closed, production plants, since 2005:
•Citizen-Times in Asheville, N.C.
•Boston Globe
•Boston Herald
•New York Times (Edison, N.J.)
•Los Angeles Times (SFV)
•The Times in Trenton, N.J.
•North Jersey Media Group (Hackensack, N.J.)
•Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.
•Dow Jones (suburban Denver and suburban Chicago)
•The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
•Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tenn.
•The Daily Breeze in Torrance, Calif.
•Palm Beach (Fla.) Post
•Atlanta Journal-Constitution (downtown plant)
•Denver Newspaper Agency (former Denver Post plant)
•The Courier in Waterloo, Iowa
•San Angelo (Texas) Reporter-News
•The Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, Ark.
•Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal
•The Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise
•The Olympian in Olympia, Wash.
•The (Boise) Idaho Statesman
•Bellingham (Wash.) Herald
•The Recorder in Greenfield, Mass.
•Northwest Florida Daily News in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
•Stevens Point (Wis.) Journal
•Washington Times
•The Modesto (Calif.) Bee
•The Gleaner in Henderson, Ky.
•The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va.
•Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle
•Bradenton (Fla.) Herald
•Detroit Newspaper Partnership
•Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel
•San Francisco Chronicle
•Patriot-Ledger in Quincy, Mass.
•Brockton (Mass.) Enterprise
•The Times-News in Hendersonville, N.C.
•Community Press (Cincinnati suburban weeklies)
•Palladium-Item in Richmond, Ind.
That the NY Times is trying to sell their share of the Red Sox is like the guy who was happy that he won the lottery because it meant he could keep his trucking company going a little longer.
You know what I watching on Christmas eve Abb
I watching Networks it seem that one VP is like Bill Holden character so sad
“For purely selfish reasons”, I’m happy to see them linger and suffer a bit longer.
2009 will be very interesting as tight money increases the negative impact of their lower subcriptions and advertising.
We will get to read about some really insane outbursts as these formerly elite left wing mediots lose it.
We will get to read about some really insane outbursts as these formerly elite left wing mediots lose it.Conservatism's unrepentant new media voice seems to add fuel to the towering rage of progressive liberal socialism. Conservatism using new media to stick its thumb into the eye of Obamanation portends a plethora of kook offerings from the fit to be tied community. LOL.
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/12/26/money-losers-of-2008-sam-zells-year-from-hell/
Money losers of 2008: Sam Zell’s year from hell
Sam Zell's year from hell"Grave dancer" came late to the dance it seems.
Mark Cuban's efforts to buy the company's Chicago Cubs have reportedly been held up because the the loud-mouth billionaire's problems with the SEC.All these supposed billionaires end up going hat in hand to Wall Street? WTF? It seems to me that by definition a billionaire need only take out his own wallet to buy something that costs a billion.
"Unfortunately, at the same time, factors beyond our control have created a perfect storm -- a precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy coupled with a credit crisis that makes it extremely difficult to support our debt," he said.FYI "perfect storm" jumped the shark. "Obamanation" is now the preferred term as in "Unfortunately, at the same time, factors beyond our control have created an Obamanation -- "
In the past decade, it has been easy to provoke insane outbursts from local elite liberals using cutting humor and quotes from the new media.
It will be even easier next year as the MSM takes body blows daily from the economy and payback for their bias.
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