Stop the presses: Telegram printing staff brace for closure of N.L.'s last press

It's a deadline journalists and printing press staff in Newfoundland and Labrador are dreading: the finalpaper edition of the Telegram, the largest newspaper in St. John's.

After Aug. 23, a printers' union representative tells CBC News, the presses will stop for good, ending an era that spans nearly 150 years.

"It's just so widespread," says Nathan Roberts, a press operator and Unifor treasurer."I don't think most of us have completely understood what all of this was going to mean."

Roberts rattles off SaltWire Network's list of clients. When workers turn off the press for the last time Friday, it'll mean community publicationslike the Shoreline, the Northeast Avalon Times and the Newfoundland Quarterly will have to turn elsewhere.

Postmedia received the legal green light to acquire SaltWire Network earlier this month but didn't buy the printing press.

"It's the largest one in the province, and the only press capable of printing large volumes of newsprint. There are likely going to be a lot of customers that end up having to go out of province," Roberts said.

"Our understanding is that everything is is meant to be sold off, and if it's not sold, it'll end up being sold for scrap."

WATCH | Press operator Nathan Roberts will soon have a hand in printing the last St. John's newspaper:

Questions swirl about the future of The Telegrams printing press

25 days ago

Duration 4:03

The Telegram newspaper will soon be owned by Postmedia, but that deal doesnt include the papers printing press. That facility doesnt only print The Telegram, but other community papers, brochures and magazines. The CBCs Peter Cowan met with a press operator Nathan Roberts to find out more.

The takeover of the insolvent Atlantic newspaper chain is expected to close next week. Roberts says he hasn't heard any reliable information about a potential buyer for the press. After 12 years at the shop, he's preparing to look for a new job next week.

"The last few weeks, the hard reality sort of hit," he said. "We're kind of wondering where we're all going to end up."

The printing industry has continually shrunk over recent decades. The Telegram long ago absorbed the former Robinson-Blackmore chain of community papers, and the Newfoundland Herald ceased publishing almost two years ago.

Big blow for local news

Journalists, too, are fearingthe prospect of a future without a local paper, as fears over Telegram newsroom job cuts percolate, now that Postmedia is poised to take over.

"When they've purchased their papers across the country, they've closed many of them, they've cut staff and they've moved significantly to digital and online news," said Doug Letto, a former CBC News producer and anchor.

"Newspapers have been facing a strong headwind for a very long time."

The problem for Letto isn't the loss of the physical edition itself, but how such a change will affect bodies in the room capable of chasing down local stories, investigating corruption and holding politicians to account.

LISTEN |Journalists Ashley Fitzpatrick and Doug Letto on the future of news in Newfoundland and Labrador:

On The Go23:17Saltwire acquisition panel

With many questions and uncertainty about the future of The Telegram, we take a look at the future of local news and journalism in the province. (Krissy Holmes with reporter Ashley Fitzpatrick of Atlantic Business Magazine and former CBC producer/reporter Doug Letto)

"The conversation for a long time has been around this idea of the'death of print,'" said Ashley Fitzpatrick, a reporter with Atlantic Business Magazine.

"I think what everybody's really holding their breath and waiting to see is what's going to happen with those journalism positions, what's going to happen with the newsgathering capacity an environment that has more than one reporter at a news scrum is really important."

Fitzpatrick notes reporters are the sources of local information that simply can't be Googled there's no replacement for community journalism, she said.

"If you're in a rural or remote community, I mean, you've seen this kind of an environment for a long time, where those reporters are just not available to you. And we need to be more vocal collectively about saying we want to see more of that and finding ways in particular to support that presence."

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