By: E&P Staff The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale has agreed to print The Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach Daily News, and La Palma, effective at the beginning of December. In addition, the Tribune Co.'s Sun-Sentinel will deliver the papers to warehouses in area counties.
The Cox Newspapers-owned Palm Beach Post, which reported the partnership, did not reveal terms of the deal.
Palm Beach Newspapers said it plans to cut 300 positions in the production, mailroom, and transportation departments as a result of the move.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Doug Franklin, publisher of the paper, said, "This agreement addresses our aging presses and allows us to focus on what we do best, providing local news and advertising to Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast. Our readers should see minimal impact with this change and it will allow us to offer expanded opportunities to our advertisers."
Palm Beach Newspapers eliminated 300 positions earlier this year in the advertising, circulation, and production departments.
With no room for expansion adjacent to its existing West Palm Beach headquarters, the Post had a contract in early 2005 for land about eight miles to the west, where suitable rezoning had been approved. The site would have allowed it to build a 361,000-square-foot plant, working with The Austin Company.
More than 40 years old, the paper's 24 Goss Metro offset units (with three folders) were fitted with color decks from the Miami Herald in the early 1990s. Even its newer six-tower Goss Coloriner is almost 20 years old, and the towers are not entirely equipped for 4-over-4 color printing. The Post also had a singlewide Goss Suburban press.
All were to be replaced, with fewer than four folders. Taking substantial web-width reductions on such presses with old 23-9/16-inch cut-offs create a long, skinny paper.
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