Postmedia puts B.C. printing facility and Calgary Herald building up for sale
As part of its long-term plan to get out of the real estate business, Postmedia Network is selling off its Calgary Herald building and the Kennedy Heights printing facility for the Vancouver Sun and The Province. The sales would mean the loss of approximately 200 job losses in B.C. and another 60 in Calgary.
Postmedia Network announced it has put its Calgary Herald building and Surrey, B.C., printing facility for the Vancouver Sun and The Province on the market. It also entered a print outsourcing agreement with TC Transcontinental Printing for production of the Calgary Herald as of November 2013.
The sales would mean the loss of approximately 200 job losses in B.C. and another 60 in Calgary, Postmedia’s vice-president of communications Phyllise Gelfand told J-Source.
The sales are part of Postmedia’s long-term plan to get out of the real estate business. It recently sold its Windsor Star and suburban National Post properties in favour of becoming anchor tenants in downtown locations in Windsor and Toronto respectively. In June, Postmedia also decided to sublease two floors of its prime downtown Vancouver location.
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The Kennedy Heights printing facility, which produces the Vancouver Sun and The Province, will cease operations in 2015, said Unifor Local 2000, formerly the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, in an online statement. The printing production for the two B.C. papers will also be contracted out to Transcontinental unless Postmedia and the union reach a deal before Nov. 18, 2013, which would reduce costs at a new plant by approximately 75 per cent.
It’s unclear where the Calgary Herald newsroom will be moved post-sale. “Much will depend on timing of a potential sale and buyer,” Gelfand said.
Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.