INKY GIANT The two presses at the Times Herald-Record's print facility are called Metroliners. They stand about three stories tall, and together can produce issues of 160 pages while printing 50,000 papers an hour. Below right, the control room in the center of the press. Manor Ink photo

Region’s newspaper press to shut down

Sullivan publications left without a printer

 By Art Steinhauer | Manor Ink Mentor

A story of consolidation

In September 2013, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's media company and the owner of the Times Herald-Record, sold the paper to Newcastle Investment Corp., a subsidiary of GateHouse Media. Layoffs at the Record soon followed, as GateHouse moved the paper's production to its Austin, TX, headquarters.

When GateHouse and Gannett Co., Inc., the media conglomerate that owns USA Today and many other newspapers, merged in November 2019, a decision was made to further cut costs by consolidating printing facilities. The Record's plant on Ballard Road in Wallkill, the press that prints Manor Ink, two other Sullivan papers and numerous other publications, will close in mid-May.

The Record's press is not the only Gannett facility slated to go dark.

Regional presses to close

Here's a list of newspaper printers that will shut down as a result of the GateHouse/Gannett merger:

  • Times Herald-Record Press, Wallkill, NY: Prints the Record, the Sullivan County Democrat, The River Reporter, the Tri-County Independent and others

  • Bucks County Courier Times Press, Levittown, PA: Prints Pennsylvania and New Jersey papers, including the Courier Times, The Intelligencer and the Burlington County Times

  • Press & Sun-Bulletin Press, Johnson City, NY: Prints the Binghampton Press & Sun-Bulletin, the Ithaca Journal, the Elmira Star-Gazette and others

Middletown, NY – The Times Herald-Record has announced that it is closing its printing and production operations in Wallkill, and moving the printing of the Record to a sister facility located in Rockaway, NJ.

The move will take effect in May. The closing of the facility not only affects the Middletown daily but also Manor Ink and the two other local papers in Sullivan County, The River Reporter and the Sullivan County Democrat. Each of these newspapers is currently printed by the Record, and is scrambling to find new printers.

While the Record’s news staff will remain in Middletown, the distance of the new printing facility from Middletown will require earlier deadlines in order to maintain 6 a.m. deliveries of the Record each day. In addition, the employees of the Wallkill facility will be laid off, unless positions can be found for them at other company locations outside the area.

Record Senior Vice President Terry Cascioli issued the following statement: “This was an enormously difficult decision, and we regret the impact it will have on our employees. The individuals who bring our newspaper to life every day are incredibly skilled and dedicated, and this move is in no way a reflection on the their work.”

The state of the newspaper industry in the United States is generally rather dismal. In the last 10 to 15 years, many local newspapers have shut down, and it is estimated that 50 percent of newspaper jobs have been eliminated as circulation has plummeted, as the public increasingly gets its information from on-line sources.

The Pew Research Center has estimated that the total daily circulation of US papers has declined from a high of 62.7 million copies in 1985 to 28.5 million copies in 2018. This has led to a precipitous decline in advertising revenues that had been the lifeblood of local newspapers. With fewer papers to be printed, local presses have been shut down to save costs.

Laurie Stewart, publisher of The River Reporter, said that her paper is considering its options. She noted some surprise over the closing of the Record facility and lamented the loss of the only commercial printer in our area and the impact on the affected employees. Laurie also pointed out the unfortunate trend of local printers closing down in favor of regional presses, and now even those facilities are closing.

Manor Ink has received quotes from more distant printing facilities that are likely to double its costs, including the shipping of the monthly print run to the Manor, as volunteers will no longer be able to pick up the papers in Wallkill or any other nearby location.