Washington losing one of its largest newspaper presses

One of Washington’s largest remaining newspaper presses is closing this month, just three years after it opened.

Sound Publishing is closing its production center in Lakewood, Pierce County, which prints more than 30 local newspapers across Washington and several in Alaska that are delivered by mail.

The secretive company declined to confirm the sale but employees were informed over the last week of the closure. Some were told that the facility was losing $1 million a year.

Sound’s regional publisher, John Carr, declined to answer questions, such as how many employees may be affected.

“We do not have any comments on printing decisions, but can confirm that there are no plans that would affect any Sound print or digital editions,” he said via email. “We continue to be focused on local journalism and providing an important source of information for the many communities we serve in Western Washington.”

Other publishers around the region and the nation have shuttered presses and outsourced production to cut costs after market disruptions, including declines in advertising that used to support newspapers. This saves money but makes them more dependent on vendors and monopolistic online gatekeepers.

On Monday the Minnesota Star-Tribune announced that it’s closing its Minneapolis press and outsourcing production to Iowa. Last month The Atlanta Journal-Constitution disclosed plans to stop printing altogether and become an entirely digital product.

In July The Spokesman-Review announced plans to close its Spokane press and outsource printing to Idaho.

In 2021, The Seattle Times closed the press at its Yakima Herald-Republic and consolidated its production at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. In 2020, The Times sold its production facility in Bothell and now prints at its Rotary Offset Press in Kent.

This also reflects changes in how people consume news. Polling last year by Pew Research Center found 86% of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from a phone, computer or tablet. It found 24% often or sometimes get news in print, a new low, but that’s still a market of 64 million people.

Most local newspapers still print physical copies, especially small, community papers that comprise most of Sound’s presence in Washington.

That creates a capacity crunch in regions with few remaining presses. It also leads to newspapers being shipped hundreds of miles by truck before they are delivered by carriers or local postal facilities.

Deadlines are pushed up when newspapers turn to distant presses so fewer papers can include late-breaking news or reports on evening sports and events. That won’t help retain subscribers who may question the value after years of newsroom cutbacks.

“We’ve run out of presses, that’s a real issue,” said Ellen Hiatt, executive director of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

Smaller papers have to find slots at the remaining presses, Hiatt said.

“Sometimes it means the news is a couple days old before it even gets printed,” she said. “It’s a challenge.”

This may not affect Sound papers as much as metro dailies. Many of Sound’s papers are community weeklies though it also owns the dailies in Everett, Port Angeles and Aberdeen.

A silver lining is that consolidation can strengthen the printing business of other publishers that still have presses and can absorb the load.

Most of Sound’s papers will be published in Mount Vernon by the Skagit Valley Herald’s parent company.

“We’re going to have to get some pressmen and other personnel added to our staff, for sure,” Ruth Turner, commercial print coordinator at Skagit Publishing, told me.

Sound may set a record for closing a costly press so soon after it opened.

The facility is massive, perhaps in anticipation of outside print contracts that never materialized.

It also opened behind schedule after complications setting up a used press acquired from Iowa. The 220-foot-long, 442-ton Goss/Manroland Universal 70 with 11 towers took 55 semi-trucks to transport to Lakewood, according to Sound’s website.

It was one of the largest cold-set web presses in the five state region of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, according to a story in the Daily Herald.

The story said 121 years of printing in Everett ended when production moved in April 2022 to Lakewood. The Herald’s most recent press opened in 1993 and employed 44 people until it closed.

Sound is trying to sublease the Lakewood facility. A commercial listing said it will be available Sept. 30 and may be subleased through 2032. It’s east of Interstate 5 in an industrial park adjacent to Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

The facility’s cost may have been a factor in Sound’s parent company, Canada’s Black Press, effectively going bankrupt in 2024.

Black Press, which owned more than 150 dailies and weeklies in Western Canada, Washington, California and Hawaii, lost $57.6 million in 2023. Its debt grew to around $61 million in 2024.

After trying to sell and finding no viable offers, the company reorganized and was acquired by Canadian financiers. They partnered with a Southern newspaper chain, Carpenter Media, that has since acquired other newspaper groups.

Carpenter sold other buildings and cut newsroom jobs and costs across the company. Among those it laid off were more than half the unionized newsroom staff at The Daily Herald.

Carpenter continues to operate a dozen other presses, according to its website. Most are in Canada but it also has presses in Hawaii and North Carolina. For now, at least.