Erie Times-News to print in Butler
Your daily newspaper will soon be at least two hours older than it is now.
This morning the Times Publishing Company announced that they are in final negotiations with the Butler Eagle to print their paper, leading to the closing of the pressroom and mailroom of the Erie Times News and layoffs of 40 full and part-time positions.
The trip from Butler to the ETN’s West 12th Street location takes 1 hour and 48 minutes.
The route the Erie Times News newspapers will take when printed at the Butler Eagle, Butler PA.
From GoErie.com this morning:
Citing the age of its printing and packaging equipment and the millions of dollars it would take to maintain or replace this equipment, the company announced in March that it would exit the printing and packaging business but continue to operate the Erie Times-News as a family-owned daily newspaper.
“After thorough evaluation of potential third-party vendors, we determined that Eagle Printing Company is best-suited to partner with us in the production of our newspaper,” said Rosanne Cheeseman, president and publisher. “Like our company, Eagle Printing Company is an award-winning, family-owned business. Even more importantly, it has modern presses and other technologies that will ensure the highest-quality product for readers and advertisers of the Erie Times-News.”
Under the ownership of the Wise family, Eagle Printing Company opened its Eagle Production Center in 2003. The modern facility includes a new-technology UniLiner press line as well as mailroom capability for daily insertion of preprint packages.
The transition is expected to occur in early August. At that time, the content of the newspaper will be transmitted electronically to the Butler facility, where it will be printed, packaged and then transported to Erie for delivery. The rest of the company’s operations — editorial, advertising, circulation, finance, information technology, maintenance, human resources, administration and the GoErie.com website — will remain in downtown Erie.
Cheeseman emphasized, “Although we are changing the way we produce our newspaper, we remain as committed as ever to serving Erie and the surrounding region — just as we have for nearly 125 years. We intend to preserve the editorial and advertising excellence that has earned us first or second place as Pennsylvania Newspaper of the Year from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association in four out of the past eight years.”
She said readers and advertisers should see no major change in content or appearance of the newspaper.
I guess no scores from the west coast and no news after the 11:00 TV shows is not considered a “major change.”
The other great irony is that the Eagle’s daily circulation is just over 26,000, but the Wise family saw to it to upgrade their presses eight years ago. Meanwhile, the ETN is nearly at 52,000 daily but the Meads did not think their press system needed to be improved. Are the presses really in that bad shape?
There are many more questions than answers on this whole deal.
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The trip takes 1 hour and 48 minutes…in good weather. Wait until we get a good Lake Effect Snow and I-79 is closed with numerous wrecks. The paper won’t even make it past Meadville. ETN is dying and the owners are **edit** to shoot it and put it out of its misery. Wonder how many people will dump their subscription when they don’t get the paper during the winter months.
This move is ill advised and not very well thought out, despite the best spin but forth by the Managers at ETN. What happens during heavy lake snows when I-79 is closed? Usually the section from Meadville through McKean gets closed several times during the Winter Months. They chose to print the newspaper in Butler? This move will easily bite them in the rump sooner rather than later.
I can understand not wanting to spend millions of dollars on new presses, but I just do not believe the Times News can save more money by printing their signature product almost 2 hours away – in good weather, as PR pointed out.
Something must happen to all rational thought processes when a manager puts on a suit and a necktie.
Mr. Sylvester, have you ever held a managerial position in the media, with or without the suit & tie ?
It is easy to sit back and second guess as a bystander on the sidelines. That certainly doesn’t take much “rational thought”.
Like basically any for-profit corporation, first & foremost the people running ETN act in the best interests of their “stockholders” (in this case, ETN is a privately-held company –not one which is pubicly traded– but the principle is the same).
Their #1 objective [besides trying to keep their own job, which is human nature common to all employees, management or non-management] is to do what it takes to legally get the company’s investors a return on investment which beats all the other alternatives taking risk into account.
If you really have to read something (no pun intended) into the Butler production decision, I’d venture that it is far more a reflection of reality & the fact that increasingly their ‘signature product’ does not necessarily involve newsprint, ink, pressmen, etc….especially at premium union rates. Not really all that different from when the linotype composers gave way to modern offset-based photypesetting years ago. It’s an ongoing evolution.
I’d say that the ETN’s management is thinking quite rationally with respect to their governance & due diligence & strategic allocation of corporate resources, thank you. Of course, the Mead family and the marketplace have the final say.
My advice: stick to endlessly touting your sure-thing predictions of upcoming ownership changes and/or the end of days at certain local broadcast outlets. How’s that big sale to Gannett coming along anyhow ? Or was that to NewVision ? Or to a local group led by John Kanzius and Bob Bach ? There’ve been so many, it’s hard to keep track. LOL.
…. ok so its August 6th, the Butler Eagle should be well into preparations to welcome ETN to the facility well by what has been said early August. The big question is are they ready. At this moment in time I doubt it, I believe they are making preparations. Taking on new employees getting them trained and revamping the mail room equipment etc. Can they do it ………. Yet to be seen – will keep ya updated -
good morning everyone. just wanted to comment on the closing of the pressroom and mailroom. the truth is that we run our press two shifts a day 6days a week i dont think that there is anything really wrong with our eguipment. we have kept our press running and the quality of the print products we put out is up to par with a new press. i do beleive that butler uses ink and paper and the only difference is they are non union. if this decision is purely a bussiness decision then just tell the public the truth. our union has tried to give the company evrything they have asked for from furloughs no pay raises for 5 years including not replacing people as they have retired. we run our presses with 3,4,and five man crews. you also mentioned the typesetters well i do beleive all the type setters where absorbed into the company including the pressroom and other departments inside the company. have nice day everyone.
ATTN: attic boys, I pondering on you comment, they may have stepped out of the union probably for financial reasons and one way was to up root the entire operation, transferring it to the eagle where there is no union, no drug tests, no pre-employment screening, a very lax training environment “included for new management”, a outrageous turn over rate. now you may ask is this thought of information that you see here or is it the inside truth. All you have to really do is go to the butler eagle website and read there police action section stay up with the news lol butler people work @ butler eagle well and the surrounding area not all butler people are crack heads and methadone addicts but a drug is a drug “against the law” between it be pills and pot to the harsher stuff. Is that the kinda people you want preparing your paper. The eagle needs to step it up on there human resources aspect get good workers instead of unreliable people who have a heck of a lot of brain cells missing. anyways thats my opinion nothing against the eagle or the color press, yes i said color press… but i call it on what is seen and heard. anyways heard a rumor that the eagle started on the erie times comics prerun today will be interesting on how that turns out. will keep yall updated
ok so its Monday, first paper for the Erie times printed and inserted @ the butler eagle, shouldn’t be that bad things are looking up, except on the Sunday packages
thats it for now