On Friday evening, the Juneau Empire‘s printing press spit out the final edition to be printed in Juneau, and then rumbled to a stop. The weekend newspaper would be the last before the press is dismantled and shipped south on a barge for a final decision on its future — to be sold for scrap or to some newspaper that wants to risk such an investment.
The Juneau Empire has moved to twice-a-week print editions that will be printed in Pierce County, Washington and flown to Juneau for Wednesday and Saturday delivery via the U.S. Postal Service.
The Goss brand press was originally situated in the old Alaska Light and Power building in downtown Juneau, but was moved to the Empire’s new building on Channel Drive in 1986. The Empire has downsized since the early 2000s, and moved out of those waterfront offices in 2021, as Morris Communications sold the building to Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. The newspaper, which is now owned by Sound Publishing, then leased back the ground floor area where the massive press is located. That lease expires at the end of May, the newspaper reported.
Moving to two times a week, with out-of-state printing and Juneau’s famously variable weather and flight schedules, may prove challenging to the capital city newspaper, which is downsized from a newsroom of more than 22 in 2000 to just three or four people in 2023.
