The Lexington Herald-Leader has announced it will quit its news printing operations -- eliminating 25 full-time and 4 part-time jobs -- and put its downtown building up for sale.
“As our digital audience continues to grow rapidly, we have made an important yet difficult decision to move our press and packaging operations to Gannett Publishing Services in Louisville,” Rufus Friday, the Herald-Leader’s president and publisher, said Monday in a statement. “We remain absolutely committed to providing a high quality print edition to our readers, while also focusing on serving our increasingly growing digital audience.”
Friday said the decision to abandon the printing operations lead directly to another decision: selling their downtown office building as well as its Fortune Drive packaging facility. Friday said the newspaper would look for new offices elsewhere in the downtown core.
“The Lexington Herald-Leader has been a proponent of a strong downtown since our company’s birth in 1870 and we remain committed to a home in the city’s vibrant downtown core,” he said.
Friday said the transition to Gannett printing will happen Aug. 1. Friday said the move will let the McClatchy Co.-owned Herald-Leader focus on its “growing digital audience,” but also acknowledge it comes at a cost of jobs.
“When changes in trends and customer needs affect employees, it’s extremely difficult, and we recognize the significance of this decision,” Friday said.