Boston Herald Sheds Presses
By Graphic Arts Online Staff -- Graphic Arts Online, June 25, 2008
The Boston Herald will lay off 130 to 160 workers and outsource its printing operations elsewhere in the state. Patrick Purcell, the Herald’s owner and publisher told the newspaper’s union leaders the move was necessary for the paper to survive, citing that some of its presses were 50 years old.
Purcell is in talks with News Corp., owner of a plant in Chicopee, MA, where editions of the Wall Street Journal are printed, and Gannett Offset, owner of a plant in Norwood, MA, where USA Today is printed.
Chief rival the Boston Globe reports the Herald will be printed every day but Friday at the News Corp. plant, when it will printed by Gannet.
The move is subject to a 90-day negotiation period; and Purcell plans to devote three months to negotiating severance settlements with affected employees and hopes to move production off-site by the end of September. The paper would retain more than 400 workers in truck delivery, news, advertising, circulation, Internet and other units at the Herald.
The Boston Globe too is struggling; as it deals with declining advertising revenue and circulation, the paper is considering consolidating its printing operations, reports a local business journal.
The Globe operates printing facilities in Dorchester, Billerica and Millbury, MA. The New York Times Co., which owns the Globe, reported that May ad sales for its New England Media Group, which include the Globe, fell 18% in May. Earlier last week several newspaper giants reported step declines revenue. (
Business conditions affect production at other newspapers. The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA, will begin a one-month trial in outsourcing page layout and copy editing to India-based Mindworks Global Media. The company has been through three rounds of layoffs in the past year, most recently in April when up to 90 employees lost their jobs.
The Detroit Media Partnership, which oversees business operations for the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, asked for 150 employees to voluntarily accept buyouts by July 18. It will also halt publication of the 11 Free Press weekly community sections and Twist, a Free Press Sunday supplement aimed at women, by early August.
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