FOR SALE: Slightly used newspaper press

A couple weeks ago I ran a blog obit of the old Goss letter press that tirelessly chugged out Flint Journals for half a century(ish) until it's retirement in April, 2004 (and currently being dismantled). The old boy was replaced with a shiny new, state-of-the-art offset Regioman press from the German manufacturer MAN Roland.

PICTURED: About half of the then Flint Journal staff in April, 2004, pose with the new press. I uploaded picture to my personal golf league website to avoid blogspot resizing. Clicking the picture will take you there and allow you to expand. I'm at 57,27 (row,column).



Sadly, most of these folks have been let go in the newspaper meltdown. The shiny new press will be mothballed in early February, 2012, as printing duties will be taken up by Valley Publishing, joining and sharing this press with sister pubs Bay City Times and Saginaw News.

As I stated to my Facebook friends, we have always been told the capital investment for the new press above was roughly $30 million. From it's start (April, 2004) to finish (February, 2012) it will have produced approximately 2,343 issues, costing $12,804 per issue in depreciation. (yes, I rounded on some days but this is close enough for me)... For comparison, the old Goss depreciated at $.0005 per issue. (OK, that last figure was totally made up, but if we are left with getting news from blog sites - this is the risk you run :)

By the way, join me on Facebook. You know who I am.