The long-silenced Goss presses at the Toronto Sun are being dismantled this week, ending a 35-year presence at 333 King Street East.
Pardon oldtimers who lament the passing of an era when a bustling newsroom had ample staff, late night deadlines and full control of the presses for early morning replates.
We tear up these days as the newspaper we knew and loved is dismantled piece by piece, department by department.
A morning newspaper with all of the late-night sports scores, evening concert reviews, late-night local, national and international breaking news? Those were the days, my friends.
In the summer of 1975, the Sun's very own presses within the walls of a new three-storey building said it all for the rising of the tabloid.
Employees and readers were eager to tour the new digs and viewing the presses that would lift the feisty tabloid to new heights was always a highlight.
Quebecor's new plant in Islington killed the nightly roar of the presses at 333 in 2008 and the dedicated pressmen who made them hum flawlessly for decades were shown the door.
Pardon oldtimers who lament the passing of an era when a bustling newsroom had ample staff, late night deadlines and full control of the presses for early morning replates.
We tear up these days as the newspaper we knew and loved is dismantled piece by piece, department by department.
A morning newspaper with all of the late-night sports scores, evening concert reviews, late-night local, national and international breaking news? Those were the days, my friends.
In the summer of 1975, the Sun's very own presses within the walls of a new three-storey building said it all for the rising of the tabloid.
The Sun wasn't yet four years old when it moved from the rented Eclipse Building space down the road. On-site presses at the then independent Toronto Sun represented success.
Employees and readers were eager to tour the new digs and viewing the presses that would lift the feisty tabloid to new heights was always a highlight.
Quebecor's new plant in Islington killed the nightly roar of the presses at 333 in 2008 and the dedicated pressmen who made them hum flawlessly for decades were shown the door.
TSF doesn't know the fate of the faithful presses at 333, but presses removed from other Sun Media newspapers have been shipped to Peru, far from the hands of any potential Sun Media competitors.
The Toronto Sun is now a shoulder-to-shoulder, second-floor tenant in the building, recently sold to an unidentified buyer for an undisclosed price.
PKP's late father was laughed out of 333 when he attempted to buy into the Sun in the 1970s.
Dammit, Rimmer, maybe Sun execs shouldn't have laughed.
The Toronto Sun is now a shoulder-to-shoulder, second-floor tenant in the building, recently sold to an unidentified buyer for an undisclosed price.
PKP's late father was laughed out of 333 when he attempted to buy into the Sun in the 1970s.
Dammit, Rimmer, maybe Sun execs shouldn't have laughed.
They closed our presses too, now we're printed out of Islington with a 9 o'clock deadline. No more Leaf scores in the paper, no score from the Canada-US world junior hockey final. There'll be no Super Bowl score in the paper, no winners from the Oscars. Anyone know how to cover an election with a 9 o'clock deadline?
ReplyDeleteSeriously 9 p.m.? What the hell is the point at printing that hour? What can you have that's fresh and revelant in terms of sports? Might as well just cut the sports section out.
ReplyDeleteWhy not print that paper in the morning?
You know what makes that 9 p.m. deadline even better - the fact that most of the copy comes in anytime between 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Making it hard some days to even get the paper out on time. Never mind any night events - like council meetings or hockey games. And with writing deadlines of 7 p.m., well you can imagine the fun that is with the reporters and editors arguing over how much time reporters have left to write.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, elections, those take place before 7 p.m., right? Who needs to know who their next representative is in the next day's paper? Oh wait, PKP will make us video election winners and put it up on our websites. If we have time to shoot and edit video before local news channels, who know what they are doing, get it on air.
Good times, good times
How have the readers taken to this? What was the old deadline?
ReplyDeleteHow can you even call it a daily newspaper? This company is pathetic and has lost touch with its customers.
Instead of the newspaper reporting the day after, it will now be 2 day old news.
ReplyDeleteWay to innovate Pierre. Keep up the vision of boning the customer.
Old deadline was midnight and then 11, then 10 and then 9 and the few papers that were switched over thanks to the new plant in Islington.
ReplyDeleteYou can't call it a daily paper. Readers and not too happy, especially since all offices close early now
And you wonder what's killing newspapers?
ReplyDeleteThe reader always comes first but when you can't get the latest news in the paper how is it serving the reader.
Instead of serving egos and beancounters how about it PKP?
Like Barnum said: Give the people what they want!
And a bit of nostalgia for me too. I remember nights I had a big story and or pictures in the paper when I would be working late into the night and then as the presses rolled I would stand at that little platform at the top and get a buzz that made the hair on my neck stand up as those Goss presses roared and thundered into life.
About the only time I get that now is when I fire up my Honda VTX 1300C cruiser......sorry to see another icon of another era bite the dust.
Why not switch to an afternoon paper?
ReplyDeleteIt will all be better when Loblaws moves into the ground floor later this year. (No joke.)