Postmedia to sell Herald building, outsource printing

Postmedia is putting the Calgary Herald building up for sale and plans to outsource printing.

• Calgary Herald building, B.C. printing plant up for sale

The news came in an email to Herald employees at 8:08 p.m. MT Monday and roughly 60 printing staff are expected to lose their jobs because of the decision.

Postmedia also said in a release that itwill be selling a facility in Surrey, B.C.,that does the printing for The Vancouver Sun and The Province

Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of Postmedia, stressed the move should not beinterpreted as an indication theCalgary Herald'sfuture is in doubt.

• Listen tohis fullinterview from the Calgary Eyeopener:

"The editorial staff should function as they do at the present time. We love the Herald at Postmedia as much as Calgary loves the Herald, I can assure you of that," he said,adding the paper is one of the companys more profitable publications.

"We are doing everything we can to shore up an industry that has had its better days years ago."

Other facilities sold

Godfrey said the building locatednear Deerfoot Trail and Memorial Drive in Calgary's southeast is bigger than the newspaper needs.

"We have about 400,000 square feet. We probably only use about 40,000 square feet in the building," he said.

PhylliseGelfand, vice president of communications with Postmedia, said the company is looking atall ofitsreal estate holdings.

"We've recently sold our Don Mills facility, we sold a facility in Windsor, and it's just not efficient for us to continue printing on our own."

Postmedia has signed a five-year contract with TC Transcontinental Printing to print the Calgary Herald, which has a daily circulation of about80,000 copies.

The printing changes will take effect in November.

"Given the current pace of change in the newspaper industry, this contract demonstratesonce againthe success of our unique newspaper outsourcing model with publishers," said Brian Reid, president of TC Transcontinental Publishing.

"It is in line with our strategy to help newspaper publishers across Canada become more efficient."