Our Shrinking Times: LA Times to Close OC Plant
by Jim Washburn
The Los Angeles Times announced today that it is closing its massive Orange County printing plant, shifting its production to their LA plant. Along with meaning the layoff of some 80 employees, the shift will result in earlier deadlines before press time. The paper will compensate by having the last thing off the press be a section called LATExtra to contain late-breaking news. The section will launch Feb. 2.
Additionally, the Monday Business section will be vanishing, with that day's business news instead running in section 1, along with all the local news that got shoved out of its own daily section last year.
And you know how in recent years the Times has shrunk not just in length but in its dimensions? They're not done yet: the width of the paper is about to shrink from 48 inches to 44 inches.
In another cost-saving measure, the paper announced its carriers will no longer toss papers onto driveways or porches, but will instead roll them into the gutter. "Ever since we started cutting their gruel with gypsum, they just don't seem to have the energy they used to," said Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein. "Through these difficult, crucial days, we remain committed to bringing you a newspaper that gives you ever-fewer reasons to read it."
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