Prairie Mountain Media will close its Berthoud printing plant and move the production of newspapers and niche publications to The Denver Post production facility in Denver, the company announced Wednesday.
More than 40 full-time and part-time employees will lose their jobs with the Aug. 12 closure of the printing center. Managers broke the news to employees in an afternoon meeting.
“I recognize this is a difficult time,” PMM General Manager Jill Stravolemos said. “I have tremendous respect and appreciation for the talented production employees and their many years of service. Decisions such as this are challenging. Preserving community journalism is our mission. However, strategic decisions must be made to ensure our future.”
PMM is a subsidiary of MediaNews Group, which also owns The Denver Post. The Longmont Times-Call, Loveland Reporter-Herald, Greeley Tribune, Broomfield Enterprise and Colorado Hometown Weekly are among the PMM newspapers printed in Berthoud.
In recent years, high production costs and a shortage of skilled press operators have presented challenges for PMM’s printing plant, with a press malfunction affecting production over several days in late December and again this weekend causing delayed delivery of several newspapers.
The closure will come one year after Gannett shuttered its Pueblo Chieftain printing operation and moved the printing and packaging of the Chieftain to The Denver Post. The Chieftain reported in 2023 that Gannett had faced “a daunting number of costly capital improvements to the presses in Pueblo.”
The National Trust for Local News announced this spring that it would end its contract with the Denver Post and PMM and move printing of its two dozen Colorado Community Media publications to a different facility.
In addition, the Aspen Daily News moved its printing from PMM to USA Printing Company in Gypsum, Colo., earlier this month.
“The strategic changes made by two of our commercial partners, the challenge of recruiting skilled press operators and the need for significant and costly press upgrades forced our hand,” Stravolemos said. “The Denver production team has successfully and reliably printed the Boulder Daily Camera and the Cañon City Daily Record for years. I’m confident they’ll do a great job.”
Lehman Communications christened the $20 million Berthoud plant and its new MAN Roland press in 2009. The plant employed 78 full-time and part-time employees at the time. In 2011, Lehman was sold to Prairie Mountain, and soon thereafter PMM moved the production of its Eastern Colorado weeklies to the 60,000-square-foot Berthoud facility.
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Originally Published: June 27, 2024 at 8:40 a.m.
