The printed newspaper may be going the way of the Dodo and the 8-track. George Wilson updates Aberdeen Voice readers to changes in dead tree media which might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
The Highlands and Islands and Inverness editions of the Press and Journal and the City Final of the Evening Express were printed in Dundee with the other editions to follow.
This was the start of the transfer of newspaper printing from Aberdeen to D.C. Thomson in Dundee, the Citizen and Scotads having been printed there a few weeks before.
By the time you read this article all editions of the Press and Journal and Evening Express will be printed in Dundee and all printing will have ended at the Lang Stracht in Aberdeen. In the next few weeks the printing press will be decommissioned, bringing to an end a long history of newspaper printing dating back to the first edition of the “Aberdeen’s Journal” in 1747.
It also ends the jobs of more than 40 people.
Of course this is happening with the minimum of fuss and publicity from the publications concerned, so I thought it only right that such an important event should be brought to people’s attention.
- Comments enabled – see comments box below. Note, all comments will be moderated.
The Press and Journal, and the Evening Express leave a lot to be desired, but it is very sad that over fourty people have lost their jobs. Part of me can’t help but think that Aberdeen Journals doesn’t really care much for Aberdeen folk and the North East anyway.
I think the trouble is not with Aberdeen Journals (AJL) as such but the owners, D.C. Thomson (DCT). Previous owners of AJL were based hundreds rather than tens of miles away and AJL was run as a separate entity, with its own managing director running the show. When the last AJL MD retired his place was taken by a DCT CEO for publishing. I would imagine his allegiance is to DCT rather than AJL, and his job is to maximize profits across the DCT group. Unfortunately for AJL that means it no longer prints its own papers and dozens of redundancies.
The minute AJL was bought by D C Thomson the writiing was on the wall for AJL. The fact that the two head offices are only 60 miles apart meant that one would have to suffer. A new press was ordered and it went (naturally) to Dundee leaving Aberdeen without a press plus if you add the distribution going to Menzies it leaves only Advertising and Editorial at the Lang Stracht. As a former employee of AJL it saddens me so see a City like Aberdeen without a proper Aberdeen printed newspaper, but in the economic world that we live in I suppose this was always on the cards unfortunately.