Superior Publishing to Centralize Printing

By: Jim Rosenberg With its sale of four regional newspapers and some shoppers to Knight Ridder (E&P Online, May 25), MCG Capital Corp. in Arlington, Va., announced that it will consolidate printing operations for the remaining 13 Minnesota and northern Wisconsin newspapers, as well as the shoppers, of its Superior Publishing Corp. unit.

Still very early in the planning stages, the project's schedule, size and equipment decisions have yet to be made, according to Superior Publishing CEO Charles R. Johnson. Described only as a multimillion-dollar facility, the plant will be located in Hibbing, Minn., where Superior Publishing owns -- but does not print -- The Daily Tribune. Although the company prints shoppers in Hibbing, it prints the Tribune in Virginia, Minn., on the Mesabi Daily News' Goss Urbanite, explained Johnson.

A third Minnesota print site, at the company's Grand Rapids Herald-Review, prints that 8,000-circulation, twice weekly and several weeklies. Superior Publishing also owns The Daily Press, Ashland, Wis., which runs its own Goss Community press.

Johnson said the investment in plant and production equipment represents commitments to the community and to the quality of the publications. The project, he said, will upgrade color and page capacity and yield "more efficiency" in production than operating three plants, "all within 45 minutes of each other."

"We have some significant commercial work" now, said Johnson, adding that the company expects to be able to add more when the new Hibbing plant is up and running.

On Tuesday, a Knight Ridder subsidiary bought The Daily Telegram, in Superior, Wis., just across the St. Louis River from Knight Ridder's much larger Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune. The purchase also included the twice-weekly Budgeteer News, in Duluth, two nearby Minnesota weeklies and shoppers serving three local markets. Knight Ridder Operations Vice President Mac Tulley said the acquired papers "will continue to operate separately and independently."