Spread across the bottom of the front page of today's Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times is a story bearing the headline AC-T press rolls last edition and the byline of AC-T publisher Randy Hammer. Curiously, the story doesn't appear on the paper's Web site.
It tells about changes "made necessary by the economy." The most significant is closing of the paper's printing plant yesterday, and movement of production to Gannett's plant in Greenville, S.C. That was announced last year and covered in a story yesterday, reproduced below.
The other changes involve cutting back to three sections from four on some days, eliminating the Sunday "Forum" section and moving the Sunday opinion pages to the A section and eliminating the classified section on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The story notes that "particularly frustrating" is the fact that while advertising is down, readership is up. The latest report from Scarborough Research shows readership in the Asheville metro area climbed to 74 percent in 2008, from 68 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, unique visitors to the paper's Web site have grown to 570,000 a month from 360,000.
The piece also notes that just 14 months ago, the AC-T put out the biggest paper in its history, weighing in at more than five pounds: "That our local economy could U-turn so dramatically from one Thanksgiving to the next is mind-boggling."
Here's the piece from yesterday's paper:
January 4, 2009
AC-T press rolls last edition=
FROM STAFF REPORTS
The last editions of the Asheville Citizen-Times printed at the newspaper's Sardis Road plant rolled off the presses Saturday night.
Beginning today, the newspaper will be printed at The Greenville News, a Gannett newspaper in Upstate South Carolina.
“Sardis was one of the first modern printing facilities that allowed newspapers to print remotely,” said Randy Hammer, president and publisher of the Citizen-Times.
“Under the leadership of Jim Burns, Pete Ryall, Kevin Arrington and Steve Koletnik, the folks at Sardis consistently printed newspapers and other products that scored some of the highest quality rankings in Gannett,” Hammer said.
The press began operation in late 1986 in a new 40,000-square-foot production and distribution facility on Sardis Road near Enka, replacing the press at the newspaper's main offices on O. Henry Avenue.
The downtown building is electronically linked to the plant, which cost $11 million.
The eight-unit, 600-ton offset press was manufactured by M.A.N.-Roland Co., a German firm. The Citizen-Times was owned by Multimedia at the time.
The press underwent a $3.5 million upgrade in 2007.
“It's sad to see the presses at Sardis shut down and so many people lose their jobs. But presses are expensive and sophisticated pieces of machinery to maintain,” Hammer said.
About 60 people lost their jobs with the closure of the printing plant, but many employees were offered — and accepted — jobs in Greenville.
“In this age of the Web and advanced technology, we will see more and more newspapers consolidate their printing operations in cities where the geography makes sense,” Hammer said.
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