The Providence Journal’s parent company Gannett announced last week the closure of its Providence printing plant, along with the layoff of 136 workers - and the shifting of the printing of the newspaper to a Gannett facility in New Jersey.
According to Matt Taibi, who leads Local 251 of the Teamsters in Rhode Island, “Teamsters Local 251 represents about 85 employees at the Providence Journal production facility. There are additional Teamsters Local 3 members impacted as well.”
For readers of the print version of the paper, it is another blow.
By way of example, a Providence College basketball game that is played on Monday night is currently not reported in the paper until Wednesday.
And that was with printing operations in the city.
A recent Monday, November 4 Providence College basketball game was not reported in the ProJo print version until Wednesday, November 6 PHOTO: GoLocalValue of the Property
The printing plant on Kinsley Avenue is one of the largest developable parcels in Providence. It officially went on the market on Friday, according to those with knowledge of the situation.
The last time it was sold from the Providence Journal to a separate Gannett-related company (LMG Holding) was in 2014 for $8,000,000, and a portion of that price was assigned to the printing presses.
Matt Fair, a partner in the Providence office of Cushman & Wakefield/Hayes & Sherry, said pricing the property is complex for a number of reasons.
"It is 158,000 SF across all buildings (some of the out-buildings are uninhabitable), the site is about 11 acres of land, likely [to have] environmental issues to contend with," said Fair.
"It is really tough to throw a number that has any reality behind it without spending significant time around assumptions regarding redevelopment possibilities and costs. It could be worth anywhere from $2 million to $10 million depending if they have to sell it on spec as vacant building (lower end of value) or if you can find a user/buyer or viable redevelopment play (higher end of value)," added Fair.
The Journal Once Was Cutting Edge
In 1985, The New York Times wrote a feature about the Providence Journal shifting to “flexo.”
The Times story titled “A New Way to Print News” reported, "Mr. DeHimer, working with the American subsidiary of the Windmoller & Holscher Corporation, a German press manufacturer, had developed a press that operated at half the energy cost and almost none of the waste of offset. It required fewer moving parts and made less noise - a welcome development since Federal safety regulators had warned him he would have to enclose his pressmen in booths if the noise level in the plant could not be reduced."
"The water-based inks used in flexo offer some advantages as well. Unlike offset's oil-based inks, they cause none of the toxic-waste problems that have attracted the attention of state and Federal environmental regulators.“
The Providence Journal wrote it was the first U.S. newspaper to use flexographic printing presses. “This type of printing required much more precision from pressmen than the older letterpress and offset methods but used inks that did not rub off on readers’ hands, allowed full-color printing, and caused significantly less waste of paper, at a time when newsprint costs were on the rise. After proving viable with the Journal, other papers soon followed suit and ordered flexographic presses.”
But what was cutting edge in the late 1980s is now outdated.
The press is closing.
The land is being sold to help the struggling Gannett newspaper group, and workers are being jettisoned.
This story was first published 11/18/24 6:25 PM
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