Will Newspaper Production Return To The Electric City? | Local News
As soon as the presses at The Great Falls Tribune and River’s Edge Press went silent, the publisher of The Fairfield Sun Times began working to acquire the smaller newspaper printing press that was located in the Tribune facility.
In 2006, The Great Falls Tribune acquired Northwinds Publishing so that the newspaper could enter the commercial printing market.
The purchase provided a smaller, more efficient Goss Community printing press. The operations grew to a point where papers from the across the state were sending their pages to the printing plant located on the banks of the Missouri River.
Before River’s Edge began to shut down, the plant was one of the leading printers for community newspapers across the Treasure State. Newspaper customers included Flathead Beacon, Bitterroot Star, Blackfoot Valley Dispatch, Boulder Monitor, Cascade Courier, Choteau Acantha, CMR High School Stampede, Cut Bank Pioneer Press, Fairfield Sun Times, Fort Peck Journal, Glacier Reporter, Gospel Mission, Great Falls College MSU ,Independent Observer, Tricia’s Trader, Liberty County Times, Lively Times, Missoula Independent, Seeley-Swan Pathfinder, River Press, Shelby Promoter, Trader’s Dispatch and Valerian.
Non-publication customers included the State of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, several Remax real estate groups across the state, Rocky Mountain Outdoor Structures, Walleyes Unlimited Of Montana, Citizens For Balanced Use, Electric City Speedway, Montana Contractors’ Association, Montana Electric Cooperatives Association, Montana Snowmobile Association, North 40 Outfitters, Outlaw Partners, Exit Realty and American Legion Of Montana.
As River’s Edge was winding down, some of the customers found other printers; a few customers left earlier over issues such as capacity.
The Sun Times, needing more color pages available made the switch to River’s Edge around 2010.
“At first, the quality at River’s Edge was not consistent,” said Sun Times publisher Darryl L. Flowers. “I recall an issue with quality on one of our first print jobs there, and when I called to ask about the problem, one of the River’s Edge crew came up with an excuse that, as someone with 30 years under my belt as a printer , did not make sense. I got in my truck, drove to Great Falls and watched the crew run their press. Right off, I could see that the press was not properly installed, but the press crew was trying their best.”
Darryl L. Flowers, at about age 6, was photographed in front of the 1957 model Goss Universal Letterpress at The Jackson Sun in Jackson, Tennessee. The photo was taken in recognition of National Newspaper Day. As a young kid, Darryl would work at the Sun after school wiping down the press, earning about 50 cents – at the time, enough to buy a Zero candy bar and a Coke. On January 1, 2008, Flowers acquired The Fairfield Sun Times after over thirty years in newspaper and commercial web-offset production.
Flowers said that he made suggestions, and over time, and to the credit of the people at River’s Edge, they worked on improving their quality. “By the time they shut down, River’s Edge was putting out high quality printing, and the team was great to work with.”
Flowers went on to say that, even though he did not shy away from letting the press crew know where there was an issue with their product, he did let them know when they did a good job.
Flowers recalled the time he got a call from Amy Thomas, the Customer Service Rep. at River’s Edge at the time, letting him know that The Sun Times would be late due to problems with the platemaking equipment. “I knew,” said Flowers, “this crew was up to their ass in alligators, working hard to resolve the problem, which was not with the press, but with the high-tech platemaking equipment. I also knew that the crew was getting a lot of calls from upset newspaper publishers irate over the delay.”
Flowers said he kept his cool, and first thing the next morning he drove down to Great Falls, stopping at Big Sky Deli in Vaughn and then at Domino’s Pizza. “I walked into the pressroom at River’s Edge, knowing that the crew had been dealing with angry phone calls from publishers, so I came through the door with pizzas and cinnamon rolls for the entire crew. By doing that, I knew that The Sun Times would be the first paper out the door when the presses rolled. I still remember how much it means to a haggard press crew from my time running presses when the publisher came in with a box of Krispy Kreme Donuts.”
Before long, River’s Edge had spent a lot of money updating their press and prepress equipment. Only The Great Falls Tribune’s press, a Goss Metroliner, was producing better quality. Flowers said that even though you might criticize the way Gannett ran a newspaper, the company, through USA Today, revolutionized web-offset print quality in the US.
The Community style web offset press that was used to print newspapers and other commercial work at River’s Edge Press in Great Falls.
“I can’t tell you how many small-town publishers called me in to work on their presses and train their crews and told me, ‘make my paper look like USA Today.’ Of course, when I told them how much that would cost, they settled for something a little more economical,” said Flowers.
When the Tribune plans closed, Flowers began working with an experienced printing equipment broker and installer to acquire the equipment at River’s Edge. “It was a nightmare, we never really knew where we stood with Gannett, so we never had a firm position to pursue the project. We were always in limbo.”
Flowers said that when he got the news the building had sold, he was told that the presses went with the building. “All we could do is wait. Would the new owner want to use the equipment? Would they just take it to the scrapyard?” According to Flowers, even though Gannett had invested a lot of money on updates to the press that improved the quality, “it’s still an old press; a nasty press, covered in grime. The press really has no value, except if it can be acquired and you don’t have to move it very far. If you’re putting this press on trucks and hauling it very far, you’ve just put more money into the press than it’s worth.”
One of the last press runs at River’s Edge Press.
Soon after getting notice of the building’s sale, the broker working with Flowers was contacted by the new owner. A short time later, Flowers contacted Pastor Nate—not about the press, but to arrange an interview. “I had covered the last day of production at The Tribune. Not the last issue of the Tribune to print on the press – which we did cover – but the actual last print job to come off the Tribune’s Metroliner as well as the last weekly newspapers to roll off the River’s Edge Press.”
Flowers said that growing up in a daily newspaper that was the same size as the Tribune and that has followed the same path – and decline – as the Tribune, gave him a desire to document the last images of the Tribune building before it takes on a new life.
“Whether it was a wrecking ball, or a rebirth as a facility that would continue to serve the Great Falls Community, I wanted to be there.”
Flowers, who describes himself as a “gypsy pressman,” said that when chatting with Pastor Nate and his dad, he could tell that they were sad about the decline of the Great Falls print media.
“I think that as we talked, standing on the pressroom floor, that the pastor and his dad understood my passion to establish an independent newspaper production facility in Great Falls. I shared my concern that if newspapers like the Sun Times had to go out of state for their printing, it would be hard for these local papers to survive.” Flowers said that doing research for a business plan for the printing project, he discovered that in Montana, under 50,000 people read a daily newspaper, whereas over 200,000 readers open the pages of a local, non-daily newspaper every week. “And that number is based on subscribers, not readership.”
“In the few weeks that we’ve been working with Pastor Nate, we’ve made much more progress than we ever did with Gannett. Now we are able to move forward and wrap up our work to acquire the press and get the equipment installed in a nearby location in Great Falls and return newspaper production to the Electric City.”