Transcontinental to stop printing SF Chronicle
December 22, 2017
By PrintAction Staff
Dec. 22, 2017 – TC Transcontinental Inc. of Montreal will stop printing the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper effective April 2, 2018. The company reached an agreement to transfer its printing operations in Fremont, Calif., to Hearst, which owns the San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Chronicle, which is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast, is printed in the Fremont facility. Under the terms of the agreement, TC Transcontinental will continue printing the newspaper in Fremont for a transition period.
TC Transcontinental will receive a cash payment of US$42.8 million from Hearst as compensation for the early termination of the printing agreement, for the sale of some of its printing equipment, and for services to be rendered as part of a Transitional Service Agreement.
TC Transcontinental reached a 15-year agreement to print the newspaper in 2006 and in 2009 began production at the newly built, $230-million, 338,000-square-foot plant in Fremont.
TC Transcontinental maintains ownership of its Fremont plant and will be renting the facility to Hearst until the end of 2024. On April 2, TC Transcontinental employees working at the Fremont plant will be transferred to Hearst.
The Corporation will transfer the remaining equipment in Fremont to other TC Transcontinental Canadian plants in 2018, focusing on its retail printing platform. TC Transcontinental will also transfer the retail volume from the Fremont operation to other plants in its printing network.
