#10- Observer-Reporter ceases in-house printing operations
In August, the Observer-Reporter ceased printing operations in Washington, opting instead to outsource printing the daily newspaper on presses owned by the Wheeling Intelligencer. The decision represented a historic transition for the O-R, which had been printed in Washington since the newspaper’s 1808 founding.
Observer-Reporter Publisher Tom Northrop said an aging press that was dedicated only to publishing the daily newspaper and the O-R’s weekly newspaper, The Almanac, no longer made economic sense. The press run had swindled to two hours a night five nights a week, and four hours each of the other two nights.
The decision to outsource, which necessitated cutting 15 full-time and 23 part-time positions, followed a continuing trend in the newspaper industry, which has been for newspapers to build large-scale printing plants that contract to print numerous papers and run as around-the-clock operations.