We ran a little business brief Tuesday about the decision by the Dispatch in Lexington to stop printing its newspaper. Instead, the paper will be printed in Spartanburg, S.C. Yes, Spartanburg, 130 miles away. The fact that the New York Times Co., which owns both papers, thinks it’s more efficient, i.e. more profitable, to print the paper, put it on a truck and drive two hours says a lot about the economics driving the newspaper business these days. Press closures and consolidations are everywhere. Here at the Journal, we print the Statesville Record & Landmark, one of our sister papers. It goes to bed before our first edition is put on the press. The Hickory paper prints the papers in Morganton and Marion.
There are a couple of factors driving this trend. First, of course, is the push to squeeze costs. Presses are huge and expensive pieces of equipment. In the old days, they cranked up once a day for the run. Now the goal is to maximize their use throughout the day. Second, is a personnel issue. It’s become harder to find people to work the press, particularly in small towns, as the equipment has become more complex. In addition, the hours of a pressman are hard, and it’s an exacting job without a lot of wiggle room.
This isn’t just an issue in smalltown America. Even the big metros are getting in on the act, as this story about the Boston Herald makes clear.
Newspaper delivery and distribution continues to change. People get their news from the newspaper in different ways and different forms. It’s possible—even likely—that the press in Spartanburg will be able to print a better paper than the smaller press in Lexington did.
But that misses a larger point. If you’ve ever watched a newspaper press in action, you know that it is a thing of beauty, power and grace to behold. It just roars, and it does this roaring at a time when most people are sound asleep. It’s the heartbeat of a city carried over from one day to the next. And when the heartbeat is divorced from the folks who read the paper, who put it together, who rely on it, there is a loss that is hard to measure but still a loss nonetheless.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
Do you allow tours of the press facilities? Maybe not since security must be a serious consideration these days. As a student, I remember touring my hometown newspaper facility - it was such a great learning experience. Maybe tours would encourage more students to read their local paper.
We allow some visits, but they are pretty limited and prescribed. It’s less about security than it is about insurance and liability. Generally speaking, the factory tour has really vanished. In the old days in W-S, you could go to Whitaker Park and watch them make cigs, then bop down 52 to the Schlitz/Stroh’s plant for a cold one…
You sold me--well, sort of. I guess I believed it already. I like the feel of a newspaper (or a book) in my hands. There is something of physical comfort in it that isn’t online. And obviously, that something isn’t information. It’s the “heartbeat” you mention. Yes, the “heartbeat that hasn’t been divorced (and is, therefore, married); it’s the lifeline of writer (and all the others involved in newspaper production) to reader. Yes, you sold me by taking a valid risk. Not your point today. But one that rings true, nonetheless. And I can see how farming out production makes the felt process something cold. My point is that when you took that calculated risk, you spoke of how the physical matters.
Add the Surry Messenger to your list of N.C. dailies without a press. The Mount Airy-based five-day daily is printed at the High Point Enterprise. It’s in a situation different from Lexington, because The Messenger is a startup paper rather than an established one. That said, The Messenger arrives at my house never later than 10 a.m. (today a little after 8) and, like the competing Mount Airy News, is in stores and newsracks before most stores open and shoppers arrive.
This thought occurs to me: In the past we moved our afternoon papers to mornings so (a) the ads could sell all day long and (b) readers could get the news while they still had time to read before going to work. In the future that may not be so important to retiring baby boomers who still make up the biggest segment in newspapers’ readership. Perhaps we’ll see more smaller dailies move back to P.M. and idle their presses to take advantage of unused capacity on the metros’ presses.
Post a comment
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.