Kalamazoo Gazette to close downtown press, begin layoffs

By Fritz Klug
News Editor

Kalamazoo’s media industry took a big hit on Friday when Booth Newspapers announced that it was closing the Kalamazoo Gazette’s press.

The Gazette will be printed daily in Walker, Mich., along with the Grand Rapids Press and the Muskegon Chronicle.

The move follows a national trend in newspapers having to adjust to and compete with the influx of content being delivered on the Internet.

According to a Friday press release, the changes will increase operational efficiencies within the Booth chain. From 2008 to 2009, readership has increased 18 percent.

Positions cut will mainly be in printing, production, and packaging positions in as well as a few in the news, circulation and advertising departments. No numbers were given in the release.

As part of the changes, an outbound call center will be in Kalamazoo. All advertising and production work for the three newspapers will be re-assigned to a print and digital production facility in Grand Rapids.

The move to end daily printing comes five years after the Gazette invested $31.8 million in a new offset press at their plant in downtown Kalamazoo.

Other papers have reacted to the changing climate in the newspaper industry in different ways. The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press reduced home delivery to three days a week in March. The Ann Arbor News closed in July and became AnnArbor.com. It publishes on Thursdays and Sundays.

In March, the Gazette announced wage and benefit cuts for their employees and also offered buyout and early retirements.

James Stephanak, the Gazette’s publisher, would not comment further when contacted by the Western Herald on Sunday about the reductions.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=13466

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Jan 11 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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