Welland -presses

Sun Media is shutting down the presses at the Welland Tribune and moving print production to Quebecor's printing plant in Toronto.

The shutdown also affects printing of the Niagara Falls Review and the Daily Racing Form, which sources say has a long term contract with Sun Media.

A TSF tipster says the dozen or so pressroom employees have been told they can apply for jobs at other Sun Media press plant facilities. Several employees in the mail room were laid off last week.

Another source says the move to Toronto takes the Niagara Falls Review's copy deadlines back to 9 p.m.

Welland Tribune publisher Ken Koyama told staff about the end of Tribune press operations today, adding readers and advertisers will notice an improvement in print quality.

Koyama's comments have been posted online in a Tribune story, so kudos to the paper for communicating with readers and thanking staff for their efforts.

“Our staff for many years have done a great job of publishing our paper on presses that have seen better days,” he said. “ We thank the many press operators both current and past for their great dedication and hard work.“

Trucking newspapers from Toronto to Welland and Niagara Falls?

Weather is the key for long distance delivery of newspapers. Moving the printing of the Ottawa Sun to Mirabel, Quebec, a few years ago didn't work out that well. Ottawa now has its presses back in business.

And, as mentioned, earlier copy deadlines.