News & Messenger moves printing to Richmond

The News & Messenger has transferred printing and packaging of the daily newspaper to the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s production facility in Hanover County.

With Monday’s closure of its production operation, the newspaper will put its Woodbridge office up for sale and consolidate its remaining employees into one office. Staffers in news, advertising, circulation and the business office currently work out of the Woodbridge office, on Smoketown Road, as well as an office on Church Street in downtown Manassas.

“These moves allow us to focus on serving our readers and advertisers in all of Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park in the most efficient manner possible,” said Bruce Potter, publisher of the News & Messenger.

The production move is effective immediately and resulted in the layoff of 10 full-time and 12 part-time employees. The employees have been offered severance packages and are eligible to apply for other job openings within Media General Inc., the newspaper’s parent company.

Potter said the move was necessary because the newspaper would have had to spend several million dollars over the next few years to maintain and upgrade equipment in the 30-year-old Woodbridge plant.

“In today’s economic climate, we have to take every possible measure to improve operating efficiencies,” Potter said. “This is a difficult decision, and we are sorry to lose these employees. They have done an outstanding job over the years producing a quality newspaper and meeting deadlines seven nights a week, 365 days a year.”

The state-of-the-art Times-Dispatch plant offers more printing flexibility and a significant increase in the number of full-color pages, he added. “We will be able to offer more solutions to help advertisers grow their businesses.”

The Times-Dispatch, also owned by Media General, has a comprehensive transportation network to bring printed papers back to Northern Virginia. Subscribers should not see any change in the delivery time of their newspapers.

In addition to the News & Messenger, Media General’s Northern Virginia Media Group also produces several weekly papers, including the PW Pulse, the Stafford County Sun and the Belvoir Eagle. Those papers will be printed either in Richmond or at the newspaper’s sister facility at the Culpeper Star-Exponent.

The News & Messenger moved into the Smoketown Road office in May 1979, when it was known as the Potomac News. The newspaper’s office in Manassas formerly was the home of the Manassas Journal Messenger, which merged with the Potomac News to form the News & Messenger last year.

“Several of our departments have employees in both offices,” Potter said. “Now that we are producing one county-wide newspaper, consolidating our staff into one office should allow us to have a more cohesive operation.”

After this reduction in staff, the News & Messenger will have about 80 full- and part-time employees.

Media General has retained a local real estate firm to assist in the sale of the Woodbridge office and to help find new office space, whether in the existing Manassas building or elsewhere in the area. A timetable for the consolidation of the staff has not been determined.

“Our reporters and photographers will continue to cover the communities and neighborhoods in all parts of Prince William, and our advertising account
executives will continue to work with the many local businesses,” Potter said. “However, in today’s era of wireless laptops and cell phones, having a physical office in
every part of the county is not a necessity.”