This newspaper edition marks the beginning of a new era in the printing industry in the Capital region, and Western Canada for that matter.
As outlined in our front-page story, the Gazette’s headquarters are home to a new multi-million dollar printing press and this newspaper is the first Gazette to be printed on this new machine. Designed and built in Germany, the newspaper press ranks among the most advanced in the world. One of the most visible improvements that this press brings to this newspaper is the ability to place colour advertisements and photos wherever they’re desired throughout the pages. In the past, certain pages were reserved for colour and others were black and white. This dictated the placement of ads, stories and photos. Now the Gazette and its clients can enjoy complete creative freedom. This type of flexibility is what advertisers expect.
Getting the new press running is the last step in a multi-year transition from our old facility on Chisholm Avenue to our new building on Carleton Drive. We’re excited that the impact of this move will now be visible to all Gazette readers and advertisers. Since we moved our office operations to our new facility last year, one of the most common comments has been something like, “Why do you need such a big building for your little community newspaper?” Well, this building isn’t just the headquarters for the St. Albert Gazette, but also for the entire Great West Newspapers chain, a collection that includes 24 publications throughout Alberta, such as St. Paul, Bonnyville, Okotoks and Cochrane, to name a few. Though the Gazette is large by community newspaper standards, it’s not nearly large enough to warrant its own press. It’s by virtue of being part of a larger chain and taking on the Edmonton Journal as a printing client that the paper is able to benefit from having a press on site.
Even so, many people wonder if we’ve lost our marbles investing millions in a new press. “The newspaper business is dying!” they cry. Yes, large daily newspapers are facing very challenging times due to the loss of print advertising revenue prompted by the meteoric rise of online advertising platforms. And yes, those challenges are trickling down to community newspapers. But a large contributor to this trickle-down effect is simply the perception that printed communication is no longer popular, which is not actually the case in smaller communities. Industry research shows that 74 per cent of adults read a community newspaper.
Investment guru Warren Buffett continues to actively but selectively buy newspapers, writing in his report to Berkshire Hathaway investors in May: “… papers delivering comprehensive and reliable information to tightly-bound communities and having a sensible Internet strategy will remain viable for a long time.”
Buffett’s assessment is aligned with the mission that’s been driving the Gazette for decades: to intensively cover this community with all the resources we can muster. The Gazette remains committed to finding and telling the stories that matter to the residents of this city. No piece of technology can change that.
