Newspaper printing plant shutting down

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SURREY (NEWS1130) – The printing presses that produce the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers are churning out their final issues.

The Kennedy Heights printing plant is closing down this weekend.

At its height, the plant was putting out close to 200,000 issues of each paper on the weekends. Now circulation is around 90,000.

John Weidenbacher who was assistant production manager at The Province until his retirement in the mid-2000s recalls hundreds of employees involved in the production.

“Software virtually runs the machines now. You need bodies hovering over the software, but not as many you had hovering over a running press in the past.”

He points out the plant was ahead of its time when it opened in 1997, and that’s why the printing presses are for sale.

“Those presses are still quite valuable. This technology is going to be around for another 15 or 20 years at least,” says Weidenbacher.

Printing for the Pacific Newspaper Group has now been contracted out to a company on Annacis Island. The employees, members of Unifor, will get a severance package.

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