Printing of 4 papers to move to Little Rock press

WEHCO Newspapers will cease printing at its press plants in Texarkana and El Dorado and shift that production to Little Rock, the company announced Monday.

The Texarkana Gazette, El Dorado News Times, Camden News and the Banner-News in Magnolia will be printed in Little Rock. The change will be effective in mid-January for the Texarkana plant, which prints the Gazette, and early in the second quarter for the El Dorado plant, which prints the other three newspapers. Each plant employs 17 people, and those jobs will be eliminated.

Terri Leifeste, president of the Palmer Newspaper Group, a WEHCO subsidiary which oversees three newspapers in Missouri and five newspapers in Arkansas, said the decision came because the aging presses would require significant capital investment to maintain and eventually replace.

Consolidating printing in Little Rock will result in better quality production and the ability to produce more color, she said.

The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, another newspaper under the Palmer Group, has been printed in Little Rock for about five years, Leifeste said.

"This has been done in other markets," she said.

-- Noel Oman

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