Last Thursday we were at an online staff meeting when one of our TEAM asked if we had seen the news of the upcoming closure of the printing press in Berthoud. Before opening the story in the Denver Post, I think each of our collective hearts skipped a beat and there was an overwhelming sense of dread. Clicking on the story, we confirmed that it is the printing press that prints us, The Mountain-Ear, every week. We finished the meeting feeling in a bit of a daze.
Barb texted our press contact to get info and a bit later he called us and gave us the bad news. He said he had been on the phone since 6:30 a.m., answering questions for publications like ours. He had been told at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, and the rest of the staff was told the news at 4 p.m.
First, before asking our own questions, Barb thanked him for the thirteen-plus years we have had the privilege of working with him and his entire TEAM. She told him she was so sorry for the loss of his job. He confirmed the news we had seen that over 40 full-time and part-time employees will lose their jobs on August 12, when the press closes for good. We cannot even fathom the thoughts going through each of their heads as we race towards the looming deadline of the closure.
In 2022, the press in Burlington, Colorado, owned by Prairie Mountain Publishing closed. And the Signature Offset in the Denver Area closed. Then in 2023, the Pueblo Chieftain printing press closed down their operations. With that closure, more publications were printed at the Berthoud press.
The printing press was installed in 2009. The original owner was Lehman Communications, and then the press was bought out by Prairie Mountain Publishing in 2011. Prairie Mountain Publishing is owned by Media News Group.
The papers published by Prairie Mountain Media include: Longmont Times-Call, Loveland Reporter Herald, Boulder Daily Camera, Greeley Tribune, Fort Morgan Times, Sterling Journal Advocate, Canyon City Daily Record, Broomfield Enterprise, Colorado Daily, Burlington Record, Brush News Tribune, Akron News-Reporter, Julesburg Advocate, Lamar Ledger, Estes Park Trail Gazette, Loveland Weekly and Colorado Hometown Weekly.
They also print local privately owned jobs including The Mountain-Ear and Weekly Register Call, as well around 70 other publications.
The rising cost of equipment repairs, paper, ink, shipping and more have been passed along to the customers with increases every six months for the last several years.
The rising cost of mailing for the last 4 years hasn’t helped either. Every six months publications have an increase that makes it more cost prohibitive to continue printing the news.
Why is what we do important, as a community newspaper? Newspapers provide news, features, public notices and advertisements, political coverage, sports, school coverage, entertainment and more. Our job is to inform our readers and to keep government in check, as well as provide reliable, trusted news to our community. As well, visitors still like to come to a small town and pick up a local paper where they are visiting and see what is happening. We provide weekly schedules of events for the entire Peak to Peak region.
Most of us still believe print is an integral part of the news we produce. And, we also have a digital presence that we have had for a couple decades. You can find our website at www.themtnear.com.
Sara shared her thoughts: Printing changed the world and I am not convinced that it is something that should go away. I don’t think our world would be better off without print. I love newspapers and books...the smell, the feel of a book...the quietness of a bookstore and library full of books.
But how does it stay relevant, sustainable with the environment… the system needs to be looked at and improved.
Lynn: It’s easy to say that it would be easier and much cheaper to go to an all online newspaper. And for many of us, that’s a fine solution. But there are a few – especially in our community – who, for one reason or another prefer reading a paper that is actually paper – that can actually be held, creased, folded, torn, used for cat litter or puppy training – and read, underlined, cut out when there’s the photo of a treasured child or pet.
Some of us are old enough to prefer “hard copy.” Some of us just don’t like reading online. And they – we – are willing to pay the price for it. I’m a pretty strong environmentalist, but even I can see that in the greater scheme of things, our use of natural resources in putting out a newsPAPER is fairly limited.
The question I have, though, is: can we find another printer who can work with our schedule (or a schedule we can work with)? I have no answers there.
Doug Armitage responds: Barb had asked me to tell you why I think that The Mountain-Ear is important to our community and why small press in small towns is important for the people. Of course, the most important thing for me as a businessman in THE MOUNTAINS is to be able to advertise my store and make it available so people know what is available to them and more importantly what’s available to them that is not on the internet.
How do people get their information locally? What is important to the local community? The Internet seems to be the answer for a lot of people. I’m not sure, however, that complaining on Facebook media is as valid or as effective as having a local newspaper that is dedicated to presenting an informed and researched reporting to us.
“All news is local.” that the phrase is meant to express the importance of localizing news and issues — of making them meaningful to smaller, specific readerships. That is why we live and work in a smaller community. We want to have a more nuanced view of the local and world news than we get from the bigger new organizations and address our needs better.
Please consider taking our brief survey here, to help us better understand your news needs: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MTNEARsurvey
