'Globe' to Close Suburban Printing Press

By: The Boston Globe has announced that it will close its printing plant in suburban Billerica by 2010 in an effort to cut operating expenses at a time of declining circulation and advertising revenue.

A newspaper spokesman says about 200 people work at the facility, but the exact number who will lose their jobs was not immediately known. Spokesman Bob Powers refused to say how much the Globe would save by closing the plant.

Publisher Steve Ainsley says the facility is closing because the paper, owned by The New York Times Co., does not need as many presses. The Globe plans to keep the printing press at its headquarters in Boston's Dorchester section.

In addition to printing about half the paper's 350,000 weekday press run, the Billerica facility also prints copies of The New York Times.