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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2020)
BUSINESS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2020 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7 EO Media Group to move printing operations to Walla Walla By BEN LONERGAN STAFF WRITER When Nick Tinhof wound down his shift on Tuesday, Nov. 3, he knew it would be the end of an era at the East Oregonian. Election Day marked the last time the EO’s Goss and Tensor press will oper- ate in Pendleton as the East Oregonian begins the process of transition- ing its printing services to The Seattle Times Com- pany-owned Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. EO Media Group’s other publica- tions on the east side of the state, including the Herm- iston Herald, will also be printed in Walla Walla. “I’m just sad to see it go, I don’t really know how to put it into words,” said Tinhof, the East Ore- gonian‘s lead pressman. Tinhof began working on the press shortly after its installation in 2013 and quickly worked his way up from replacing plates and ink to running the entire show. Tinhof credits for- mer Pendleton pressmen Bob Rasmussen, Jeff Davis and Dennis Duchek with mentoring him and help- ing him get up to speed on the press and its inner workings “It’s always fun work- ing at night, you can’t go to the hardware store to get spare parts if some- thing goes wrong,” he said. “Whatever you’ve got in this building is what you’ve got to try to make it go, you’ve got no backup.” Tinhof is passion- ate about the work, care- fully checking each page for color, clarity or any smudge marks as papers come off the press, ramp- ing the press up and down and making adjustments on the fly like a conductor orchestrating the moves of a symphony. “You’re responsible for how good it looks,” said Tinhof. “No matter how late it is or what goes wrong there’s no just give up and go home.” In the coming weeks, the press will be disman- tled and shipped to Walla Walla where it will replace the Union-Bulletin‘s aging press. There, it will print papers throughout the region, including those operated by EO Media Group. In the interim, the EO Media Group news- papers and publications will be printed in Yakima at another printing facil- ity operated by The Seattle Times Company. “The East Oregonian has had a printing press in Pendleton since 1875, so it was a difficult deci- sion to close our produc- tion facility and move our press to Walla Walla. But, having two presses within 40 miles of each other no longer makes sense,” said Kathryn Brown, EO Media Group vice president and former publisher of the East Oregonian. A proud history Duchek, a former East Oregonian pressman, fi rst began working on the press in the early 1970s after Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald The East Oregonian newspaper runs into the folder on the press at the Pendleton press facility on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald Mike Bordenkircher loads a plate into the press prior to printing the East Oregonian at the newspaper’s printing facility in Pendleton on Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. Hermiston Herald/ FIle Former East Oregonian pressman Dennis Duchek watches the press in this 1984 fi le photo. working as a paper delivery boy for the East Oregonian in his youth. At that time, the East Oregonian was printed on a Goss Suburban press, which the company had purchased more than a decade earlier in 1960. The fi rst web-fed offset press west of the Mississippi River, the Goss Suburban could print 14,000 newspa- pers per hour from a roll of continuous newsprint. Duchek’s fi rst job on the press was melting down lead type and pour- ing lead “pigs” for typeset- ting machines and working in the camera room, where pages were photographed before being transferred to plates for the printing press. “When I started we developed pictures by hand and got the inserts all made up from those,” he said. “My fi rst job was pouring the lead pigs for the type.” In the years to come the press would again be expanded and altered sev- eral times to add color printing, with the most sig- nifi cant change being the installation of a Goss Com- munity press in 1977. The Goss Community press ran for 36 years until its replace- ment in 2013, shortly after Duchek’s retirement. “The main thing was to put the paper out — and we did that on a daily basis,” he said. Getting a good deal In 2013, EO Media Group, which owns the East Oregonian and Herm- iston Herald, started the roughly $1.3 million pro- cess of replacing the aging Goss Community press with newer Goss and Ten- sor units. Parts and com- ponents for the press were sourced from around the United States, and section by section the new press was pieced together. With the recession hav- ing closed newspapers and printing operations across the country in the late 2000s, the market was full of available printing equipment. At the time, former East Oregonian publisher Tom Brown referred to the new press as getting a 2-year- old pickup for a rock bot- tom price. After the more than monthlong process of replacing the press, the new East Oregonian press roared to life and printed its fi rst paper on Monday, July 15, 2013. “It was quite a project — overwhelming at times even — but it worked out,” said Rasmussen, a for- mer East Oregonian press- man of more than three decades. “We fi nally got it running good.” The East Oregonian‘s press is capable of printing 30,000 full-color papers an hour and currently prints all of the EO Media Groups’ Northeast Oregon newspapers, including the East Oregonian, Herm- iston Herald, La Grande Observer, Blue Mountain Eagle, Wallowa County Chieftain, Baker City Her- ald, and jobs for several other commercial printing clients. “When we put that press in, I fi gured it’d last for a long time,” Rasmussen said. “But I do realize print media is going away.” Looking to the future As the EO Media Group looks toward the future, Brown said the consolida- tion of printing operations makes fi nancial sense for EO Media Group and The Seattle Times Company and allows the East Oregonian and Walla Walla Union-Bul- letin to focus on local jour- nalism in the coming years, especially with the fi nancial challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. “When we installed our new press in 2013, we knew we were in a period of tran- sition, and that print news- papers would gradually fade away as more of our readers came to prefer to read their local news online,” said Brown. “We didn’t know then that the COVID-19 pandemic would bring sig- nifi cant fi nancial challenges, not only to our company, but to the nation’s economy.” Despite the decline in Providing The Personal Touch You Need Serving families for over 70 years. BURNS MORTUARY of Hermiston & Hermiston Crematory 685 W. Hermiston Ave. Hermiston, Oregon (541) 567-6474 www.burnsmortuaryhermiston.com print newspapers, EO Media Group remains committed to providing a printed newspa- per, said Brown. “Although we won’t be printing in Pendleton, we do plan to continue publish- ing in print for at least a few more years,” she said. Heidi Wright, the COO of EO Media Group and pub- lisher of the Bend Bulletin, said the changes in Pendle- ton come at a time when the industry is looking for ways to adapt to the ever-chang- ing media landscape and it didn’t make sense to have two presses within 40 miles of each other. “We are excited to begin a new partnership with The Seattle Times Company and hope this can allow for fur- ther collaboration down the road,” she said. Wright said the East Oregonian had lost two pressmen in the past sev- eral months and diffi culties recruiting qualifi ed appli- cants to the area added to the decision to move the print- ing facility. Wright doubled down on the importance of local jour- nalism and said the company was working to make moves to allow the East Oregonian and other local newspapers CHURCH DIRECTORY Community Worship Featured this Week: Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church 565 W. HERMISTON AVE. MASS SCHEDULES Monday-Friday/Lunes a Viernes..... English/Ingles 8:00 am Tuesday-Friday/Martes a Viernes Spanish/Espanol 6:00 pm SATURDAY/Sabado....................... English/Ingles 5:00 pm ......................................................Spanish/Espanol 7:00 pm SUNDAY ........................................ English/Ingles 9:00 am ....................... Spanish/Espanol 11:00 am/1:00 pm/6:00 pm Parish Office/Oficina Parroquial ....................541-567-5812 LANDMARK BAPTIST CHURCH www.hermistonlmbc.com 541-289-4774 Pastor David Dever Sunday School...9:00 am Worship Service...10:30 am 567-3013 775 W. Highland Ave., Hermiston Presented by: Dr. Jennifer Cooper, Clinical Psychologist Virtual and In-person options available. Call for more details: 541-667-3509 CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP Sun. Bible Classes...................10:00am Sun. Worship Service..............11:00am Sun. Evening Worship..............6:00pm Wed. Prayer & Bible Study......6:00pm “Grow Your Faith Through God” Stress and the Holidays Nov. 12 at 12pm NEW BEGINNINGS Worship Service 10:30 AM Sunday School 9:00 AM Pastor J.C. Barnett Children’s Church & Nursery Available 700 West Orchard Avenue P.O. Box 933 Hermiston, Oregon 125 E. Beech Ave. • 567-3232 First Christian Church Join us for Good Shepherd’s Lunch & Learn: to maintain their newsrooms and continue to report local stories. “I want to extend my sin- cere thank you to the hard- working people on the press crew and in the mail room,” said Wright. “This is by no means a refl ection on any of them.” Earlier this year, the East Oregonian decreased the number of print editions from fi ve to three times a week, and laid off several staff members in an effort to cut costs amid the COVID- 19 pandemic. Despite the adjustments, the paper con- tinues to publish new stories daily, and staff remain com- mitted to covering the news of Umatilla County and the surrounding areas. East Oregonian pub- lisher/editor Andrew Cut- ler said the staff at the paper will continue to put out award-winning journalism and work diligently to pro- vide information to the pub- lic despite the changes in press location. “Our mission will not change,” he said. “We remain as committed as ever to creating a quality product that provides the commu- nity with relevant, credible content.” The Full Gospel Home Church 235 SW 3rd Phone 567-7678 Rev. Ed Baker - Rev. Nina Baker Sunday: Sunday School........10:00 am Worship...................11:00 am Evening Service........7:00 pm Wednesday Service..7:00 pm “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” 1 Pet. 5:7 St. Johns Episcopal Church Join Us Us Join On Our Journey With Jesus. Join us on ZOOM 9:00 AM Sunday Email: chuckb@eotnet.net for link N.E. Gladys Ave & 7th, Hermiston PH: 567-6672 We are an all inclusive Church who welcomes all. Seventh-day Adventist Church Saturdays Sabbath School........9:30 a.m. Worship Service......11:00 a.m. English & Spanish Services 567-8241 Hermiston Jr. Academy 1300 NW Academy Lane, • Hermiston To advertise in the Church Directory, please contact Audra Workman 541-564-4538 or email aworkman@eastoregonian.com
