'Wash. Times' Adds 25% to Baltimore 'Sun' Printing

By: E&P Staff As reported here and elsewhere Wednesday, The Sun of Baltimore will begin printing The Washington Times early next month. The value of the 10-year contract was not disclosed.

In a memo informing employees of the change, Times Associate Publisher and General Manager Richard H. Amberg also wrote that commercial printing work now handled by the Times will be transferred to another, soon-to-be-named printer in October.

For the Times, the move from its two-around singlewide Goss Urbanite press to the Sun's newer doublewide Goss Colorliners means faster printing of more sections, more pages and more color, with more zoning possible.

For the Sun, which has delivered copies of the Times in the Baltimore area for several years, the new business will help compensate for the recent advertising losses. Sun reporter Lorraine Mirabella noted Thursday that word of the contract came two days after big Sun advertiser Boscov's department store filed for bankruptcy and announced store closings in three area malls.

The Times becomes the biggest of the Sun Park plant's 50-plus commercial customers, the New York Post and Daily News among them. Mirabella reported that Baltimore Sun Media Group Senior Vice President of Marketing Judy Berman said that printing the 93,763-circulation Times will raise plant production by 25%. Besides the Sun, it also prints the group's 30 community papers and magazines.

Berman also said the contract will require more staffing at the plant, a development that follows the recent loss of 100 jobs at the group as a result of policies of corporate patent Tribune Co.'s new ownership.

With Times printing at Sun Park just a month away, Berman said, "I really don't know" if Times pressroom staffers will be considered for those Sun Park jobs. Times Corporate Relations Director Jonathan Slevin paraphrased Amberg's memo, saying "there may be opportunities for some of our folks," but that it "is too early to know."

The memo said that there also may be employment for production staffers elsewhere at the Times, and that some will stay on until the plant is closed and the equipment and consumables are sold.