By: E&P Staff Beginning in January, the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, will be printed in Abilene at the Reporter-News, also an E.W. Scripps daily.
Standard-Times General Manager Becky Brackin cited the cost of repairs to the paper's press, which dates from the early 1980s. She is quoted by Rick Smith in today's edition says, "It has come to a point in time when our press is not cost-effective to repair, and certainly not to replace."
The Abilene daily operates a Goss Headliner Offset doublewide, Goss Community singlewide, and Didde narrow-web presses.
While local readers should receive papers at the accustomed time, Brackin conceded that, because Abilene is 90 miles away, "readers in our outlying areas may occasionally have a late newspaper." She added that deadlines also may be affected.
"We're going to be relying more and more on our Web site for late-breaking news," Brackin told the paper.
Closing the pressroom will cost the jobs of 16 full-time and 13 part-time production and distribution employees, according to the Standard-Times, which reported that they will be offered severance packages and "receive priority consideration for four new full-time pressroom jobs and additional part-time mailroom jobs in Abilene."
Announcing the change, Brackin noted that among newspaper production consolidations elsewhere, in Texas the Beaumont Enterprise announced a year ago that would move production to its larger Hearst sister paper, the Houston Chronicle, two counties away.
In both cases, the pressroom closures shrink the number of Goss Cosmo presses still in operation (E&P, Oct. 2007).
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