430 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

TC:

 

 

We’ve had a rough few days getting our printed newspaper into your hands and we apologize to everyone for that. 

 

Here’s a quick summary of what has gone wrong. 

 

Since 2018, the Times Colonist has been printed at the Black Press plant in Ladysmith. After a few startup problems, the service provided has been great for years, except for power outages and road closures. 

 

This week, however, production of our print edition has been disrupted by a dispute between Black Press and a company which handled insertions and bundling. 

 

That company has equipment in the Black Press plant that it used to insert flyers and sections into the Times Colonist and Black Press weeklies. That work has ended, so the insertions are being done by hand. 

 

Those insertions include advertising flyers as well as regular sections of the Times Colonist. (The basic edition includes sections A and B, and the press can print up to 24 pages at a time. When we have sections C and D, or Islander, or TV Scene, those sections are inserted into A and B.) 

 

Inserting by hand is repetitive, labour-intensive work, and far more difficult than many might realize.

 

The first copies of the Friday Times Colonist were available for delivery six hours later than normal. We delivered as best we could through the day. 

 

Some copies were missing sections, and other copies might have had two or three identical sections. Advertising flyers didn’t make it out. 

 

We are doing what we can to resolve this, and Black Press has assured us that a solution will be found by the end of the month. 

 

[...]

 

We are opening our e-edition, an electronic facsimile of the printed pages, until the disruption is resolved. The e-edition has the complete newspaper; to get to it, click the e-edition button at the top right of our website pages. 

 

 

https://www.timescol...e-today-6060186

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 May 2025 - 02:30 AM.

[LJ]

Didn't get my paper Friday, today's came at 10am.

[Victoria Watcher]

Seems like an odd "dispute".  I wonder if it's related to the BP bankruptcy.  It's very difficult to know how many physical papers they produce these days.  Canadian physical circulation numbers seem to be a bit of a secret.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 May 2025 - 09:42 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

No print paper today, shifting to a new press Saturday

Starting Saturday, the Times Colonist will be printed in Vancouver, which we expect will allow us to provide more consistent, timely delivery.

https://www.timescol...turday-10670983

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 May 2025 - 09:01 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Change of plans I guess.

I guess they can load those papers on the 11pm Seaspan barge each night.

[LJ]

No print paper today, shifting to a new press Saturday

Starting Saturday, the Times Colonist will be printed in Vancouver, which we expect will allow us to provide more consistent, timely delivery.

https://www.timescol...turday-10670983

I got my paper today.

[Victoria Watcher]

Here's how to access this week's TV Scene online

Did you miss this week’s TV Scene because of our production problems? Find it in the e-edition of the Times Colonist.

 

https://www.timescol...online-10676431

[mbjj]

I tried looking at the tv scene online but it's very ungainly, even on a laptop. Print is too small, then you enlarge it, then you have to move the page from side to side to read it all. I prefer paper. 

[lanforod]

You still have TV? - my first thought…

[LJ]

They are only going to use the Vancouver press for a few weeks then shift back to the island. Hopefully all the bugs will be worked out by then.

[Victoria Watcher]

Saturday's print edition of the Times Colonist is a piece of history.

 

This is the first time our newspaper has been printed off Vancouver Island. A streak that lasted for more than 166 years has been broken.

 

We are using the plant in Vancouver that produces other major newspapers, ­including the Globe and Mail, the ­Vancouver Sun, the Province and the National Post.

 

You might notice a few slight differences in the appearance of the Saturday edition, but rest assured, the Times Colonist has not sold out to the mainland — the content on our pages is still put together in Victoria.

 

This shift has happened quickly, and was spurred on by serious problems with the ­Friday edition.

 

We are dropping our Islander supplement this Sunday because we need to publish features, such as puzzles and crosswords, that did not make it to readers on Friday.

 

This is a temporary change, one we did not plan to make, that was forced by the continuing production problems at the Black Press plant in Ladysmith, where we have been printed since 2018.

 

If all goes according to plan, we will be back at that press in two or three weeks.

 

If they don’t have to worry about a daily newspaper, the Black Press wizards will have the time to work out the bugs in the press and get things back to normal.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...lonist-10675924

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 May 2025 - 03:58 AM.