Daily Press | Richmond Times-Dispatch | rbr.com
Digby Solomon, publisher of the Newport News, Va., Daily Press says consolidating the Daily Press Media Group’s printing at Media General’s Hanover County, Va., plant was “the most viable business option” for the Tribune Company-owned papers. About 85 people who work at the Daily Press’ plant in Newport News will lose their jobs; Solomon tells the Daily Press he’s called local business owners to encourage them to hire the cashiered employees.
Media General prints its Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch as well as several other daily and weekly papers at its Hanover plant. Besides their namesake daily, the Daily Press Media Group’s papers include The Virginia Gazette and the Tidewater Review.
In April, Solomon announced the Daily Press would move much of its content behind a paywall. Describing the decision, he wrote that by making content free on the Web initially, “We neglected to leverage the one critical advantage we have over both the big national aggregators like Google and the guys who blog at home: the pros who run the Peninsula’s largest news organization.”
The additional revenue will help Media General, which is exploring the sale of its own newspapers.
Earlier this year The Boston Globe announced it would start printing its rival paper, the Boston Herald, in a deal that has helped both companies’ bottom lines.
