The purchase of a Komori sheet-fed press created quite a flurry at Columbia Gorge Press and the Hood River News this summer. Serious remodeling was required to make floor space in the pressroom by encroaching on the generosity of floor space devoted to the newspaper’s operation.
The new press opens further revenue opportunities for the already-busy company and allows it to perform work previously shopped out to jobbers, according plant manager Tony Methvin. He is expecting to have the first jobs coming off early in August.
On the Hood River News side of the remodeling project, consolidation of the news and production staffers moved to the north side of the newsroom. The most noticeable change is a floor-to-ceiling, east-to-west wall splitting the former newsroom down the middle.
The remodel also made office space with a private entrance for The Gorge Magazine. Space was carved out of the former circulation office at the front of the building. Publisher Janet Cook and her team had been working in a one-desk office since launching the quarterly magazine last year.
Eagle Web Press manager Mike Connor dispatched Phil Murphy and Rick Smith to help Tony with the press tear down and set up. They spent three days in Tukwila, a suburb of Seattle, getting the more than 50,000-pound press and ancillary equipment ready for shipment.
