Sun-Times Group to Close Northfield Plant

By: Jim Rosenberg Sun-Times Media Group plans to close a suburban production plant before the end of the year.

Probably within the next 30 to 90 days, the ailing newspaper group will shutter the Northfield plant, a leased site just north of Chicago, eliminating the jobs of approximately 70 Newspaper Guild-covered workers.

"We informed the guild several weeks ago that was going to happen," group Labor Relations Vice President Ted Rilea said.

Sun-Times Media management has met with the Guild about prospects for selling the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five months ago and is reportedly running short of cash to continue operations.

"The folks in Milwaukee may be able to handle all the work," Rilea said, referring to Journal Sentinel Inc. Once a contact is signed, he added, "we're going to phase it in.?

Most Sun-Times group printing is performed at its big, 8-year-old Ashland Avenue plant, in Chicago. Its Plainfield plant, about 25 miles southwest of the city, was put on the market early this year. That plant had printed Impremedia?s large-circulation Spanish-language weekly La Raza until last year, when Journal Sentinel took over the work.