By: Joe Strupp In an unusual move that highlights its own layoffs, The Advocate of Stamford, Conn., published a lengthy tribute today to its 17 press employees who will soon be out of work due to consolidation by the paper's new ownership.
The Advocate, which has shared printing operations with sister publication, the Greenwich Time, will soon have those functions handled by the News-Times in Danbury, Conn. MediaNews Group, which owns the Danbury paper, recently took over both the Greenwich and Stamford dailies through an agreement with Hearst.
The move has sparked consolidation of operations, meaning 15 press employees and two supervisors who had worked on the Stamford press will be dismissed, the Advocate reported.
"? pressmen at The Advocate and Greenwich Time have spent most of their lives printing newspapers in the noisy pressroom, working nights, weekends and holidays, ink on their skin and uniforms," the story, by City Editor Angela Carella, stated. "They adjust the amounts of ink - black, blue, red and yellow - making sure the plates on the press are lined up one on top of the other, so the colors are where they're supposed to be. As the press rolls, they adjust the colors - not too much red or blue, just the right amounts of yellow and black."
The story went on to interview several veteran pressmen, offering their views and memories of life at the printing facility. Among them, 85-year-old Canio Pace, who told Carella, "You have to get initiated in the pressroom. How you do that is you get a finger caught in the press." Pace then showed a middle digit held together by a metal pin, she wrote.
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-men2dec31,0,5634884.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
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