Argus Leader, Watertown Public Opinion, and Aberdeen American News are all moving their printing to Iowa

@SoDakCampaigns

After buying out 2 more South Dakota Daily Newspapers recently, Argus Leader parent company Gannett is apparently shipping their printing, and I would assume jobs, to another state:

The Sioux Falls-based Argus Leader newspaper will close its printing plant on Dec. 5, the news outlet announced with its parent company Gannett on Monday.

The press plant closure, located within the Argus Leader facility at 200 S. Minnesota Ave., is the “result of further consolidation in the newspaper industry,” Argus Leader news director Cory Myers said.

The paper’s printing operations will be moved to Des Moines, Iowa. Printing of the Aberdeen American News, Farm Forum and Watertown Public Opinion will also move to Des Moines.

Read the entire story here.

Remind me again why it’s so important to have all those legals notices printed in those papers, when they’re moving production and jobs to Iowa?

Certainly, if it’s good enough for them to transmit news stories over the Internet to be printed in another state, why can’t the state and local governments move their official notices to strictly on-line, where people can print them at a library or at home?

12 thoughts on “Argus Leader, Watertown Public Opinion, and Aberdeen American News are all moving their printing to Iowa”

  2. I get consolidation of production facilities, BUT…American News deadlines are 7pm already, which makes sports coverage 2-3 days later….which is now totally pointless.

  3. It’s the state of the industry and it’s sad to see. You can’t blame the people at these newspapers for what their ownership is forcing on them.

    But, they also can’t blame us for reacting accordingly. Pat may be on to something here. Perhaps a legal notice newspaper should be required to be printed within the state. If a local government does not have such a newspaper in the jurisdiction, a free website should be created to host those notices.

    Someone tell me again why there isn’t a website – something like http://www.sdnotices.gov – that just posts all of these notices, organized by type of government, name, and date? They are all just text. It could probably be word searchable and therefore a major improvement.

    The only objection is that a (shrinking) group of people don’t/can’t/won’t use the internet. In the past, legislative proposals have allowed those people to “opt in” to having notices for particular local governments mailed to them at their homes – I’m guessing there wouldn’t be many takers.

    You can say what you want about transparency, but I would be far more likely to visit a website like this than I currently am to look at notices in the newspaper.

    1. “A legal notice newspaper shall be printed within the state of South Dakota.”

      I would think that could pass pretty easily. As long as it can be crafted to not run afoul of the commerce clause.

      1. Probably not a good idea.
        Several small town newspapers are printed out of state as there are few instate printers willing to take on the extra work, including the 3 papers published by Hamlin County publishing.( Hayti, Estelline and Castlewood)
        Not only do they publish the official business of these towns and the schools they are the official paper of Hamlin County. The cost of buying printing equipment would shut papers like these down.

  4. I just found out that my hometown paper, the Dell Rapids Tribune, ran its last issue a few weeks ago. Which is really sad, because the Argus took a wonderful small-town weekly and gutted it, stuffed it with rehashed stories that ran in the Argus the week before, and finally sacrificed it on the altar of “corporate efficiency”.

    I feel bad for the former owners, Jim and Dawn Wilber, who had to see their baby get turned into a shell of itself. And ol’ Virgil Smith must be spinning in his grave.

    Frankly, the only reason I keep a subscription is because Matt Zimmer does a good job covering SDSU sports.

    1. I am thankful for guys like Dave Vilhauer who are starting their own thing. Local sports are the bread and butter of a small town newspaper. When they are two-three days late, it’s pointless.

  5. Why are we letting these rags continue to be tax exempt from advertising? They are the libs who say raise taxes. We should tax them.

  7. I don’t read the Argus very often. When I do, I notice even thought the city of Sioux Falls has grown by a huge amount the “newspaper” has gotten smaller and smaller. When I was a kid, I sometimes delivered the paper. The Sunday paper was HUGE. It was all kids could do to carry it. With the paper being so small today, I have to wonder just how many jobs will actually be lost. I am wondering just how long there will be dead tree versions of newspapers.

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