Thanksgiving was more than turkey time for us at the World; it was also our thirteenth year with our big fancy press, the KBA Comet. When son Rufus took over the paper in 1997, his first big step was to start looking to replace the offset press that I had installed in 1971. His foresight has been rewarded, for this press does more than just print The World. We are a central printing operation today for weekly newspapers and circulars with the highest quality color reproduction surpassed by no others.

The centralization of printing is happening everywhere. Daily as well as weekly papers are part of the mix. In Yakima, for instance, the Herald and Republic presses are printing the Ellensburg and Tri-City’s dailies as well as their own. On the coast, Gannett farms out both Bellingham and Olympia papers for printing by others.

We never planned that to happen, back a dozen years ago. But today our products are going to eastern Oregon, the Spokane and Yakima valleys as well as our own region.

Change has come to the newspaper industry in more ways than one.