They say this is temporary. But the reality is if a newspaper is going to exist, it will do so digitally, on the Internet. Without Internet subscriptions even the L.A. and NY Times would close.
“The paper itself ran front-page stories on Tuesday and Wednesday explaining the plant was having power issues, said Dave Mason, managing editor for the paper. The suspension of the press was temporary, and the paper was going to an online version daily in the meantime.
The future is not killing trees and printing the news. Let’s get honest about that.
‘Santa Barbara News-Press’ Suspends Its Print Edition
Daily Paper Going ‘Entirely Digital for Now’ Due to Power Issues at Its Goleta Printing Plant, Says Managing Editor
By Jean Yamamura, Santa Barbara Independent, 6/22/23 https://www.independent.com/2023/06/22/santa-barbara-news-press-suspends-its-print-edition/
Rumors flew this past week when clients who used the Santa Barbara News-Press’s big press in Goleta to print their jobs were told that it was out of commission. Some said they’d heard it might be permanent.
The paper itself ran front-page stories on Tuesday and Wednesday explaining the plant was having power issues, said Dave Mason, managing editor for the paper. The suspension of the press was temporary, and the paper was going to an online version daily in the meantime.
A printing press is a behemoth of a machine that uses tremendous amounts of power — as much as 480 volts at 800 amps, said one operator of a press in California. It’s unknown if the rumble of the press shook the power supply apart or if it’s the power supplied to the building that’s affected, but ever since “The News-Press Mess” started an outflow of personnel in 2006, any change at the paper has caused rumors to circulate.
Most recently, the paper’s staff joined the printing press at its Goleta location on South Kellogg Avenue in April, leaving the iconic building on De la Guerra Plaza in Santa Barbara that the newspaper had occupied since 1922. In October 2022, the News-Press ended home deliveries of its paper by carrier service and switched to same-day mail service, citing “labor shortages, higher gas prices, and other current economic challenges.”
