# Distant distribution of Local Newspapers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317 "2023-01-16T17:04:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/1 "2023-01-16T17:04:02Z")
We live in South Florida, and in every supermarket and chain pharmacy is a newspaper rack, from which one can purchase USA Today, the New York Times, etc. Also available are that day’s copies of the New York Post and the New York Daily News. I imagine that the Times has local printers to generate the copies for purchase 1000 miles away from New York City, but how about the Post and the Daily News? Do they send out digital files to a local printer, or are hundreds and hundreds of copies of the paper loaded onto a plane in the small hours of the morning and flown to Miami, Ft Lauderdale, and/or Palm Beach for local distribution? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/2 "2023-01-16T20:12:20Z")
The latter. > **[Newspaper Distribution & Hauling Service | Jack Hood Transportation](https://jackhoodtransportation.com/newspaper-distribution/)** > > Specializing in newspaper distribution & hauling, Jack Hood Transportation offers dependable trucking and transportation for newspaper publishers nationwide Companies that Trust Our Newspaper Distribution Service > While many of the leading newspaper companies in the United States and around the globe trust us to handle their daily newspaper distribution, we also serve local markets as well with the same level of dedication and the same commitment to great service. Here is a list of just some the customers that rely on our services on a daily basis: > > ``` > The Wall Street Journal > The New York Times > USA Today > Gannett Publishing Services > Investor Business Daily > The Financial Times > Scripps Media > New York Post > Indianapolis Star > And many others > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/3 "2023-01-16T20:39:34Z")
Wow, that’s quite an operation! But, I don’t imagine they drive the Daily News down here from their printing presses in New Jersey every day–that’s a 19-hour drive. That’s what I’m curious about, the logistics of it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/4 "2023-01-16T20:47:59Z")
[Here is a gift link](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/insider/times-printing-plants-delivery.html?unlocked_article_code=4Zz-uylo6tzucJFD_cbtrfaaKdTB11iVYABUlTnT1ttx5n1MKddbgmQDftS1canC3Y95CDzC0f1aqBi4cbR__AFykYkyPukEVUAdE2MM3HJxdORynoeX8ddOBp9NOFsil7vZjPRO-6h-tdldscwzxPpRDTaCO-s32OZlNl1P2ZZOZqBEHFTlrJpZDMKnKzA-ehB96gVv2gE7QSTv_k0SrzIr3-DYMkAVju-NrasWW94Ksm8AQGnpLZlXA_p-sG2zIU_j7Ngt_j7EGPGxAiLlEyWxtzIvdvLYO9HyXRaBqk3IVqkt8jm4tPxRJ9ie7boitAwIzcLQGL9VxbxapLrF39VtV1msTA&smid=share-url) to a New York Times article from August 2018 about this sort of thing. One paragraph reads, > The Times plant at College Point in Queens, N.Y., produces nearly 41 percent of the daily papers. All other copies are printed at 26 locations around the country. The Times leases a window on the presses for publications like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Dallas Morning News and The Santa Fe New Mexican, and is squeezed in between other print runs. If like me, you’ve flown into JFK Airport and then drove or been driven north, you’ll see the NYT printing plant off the Whitestone Expressway. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2023, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/5 "2023-01-16T22:50:47Z")
I once went on a tour of the WSJ printing plant just north of Princeton, and part of it (this was 30 years ago) was showing how they sent the paper electronically to their plant somewhere in California. I think the Times plant is in the Bay Area somewhere. I get home delivery, and it often shows up by 3 am. They also tried a local San Francisco page, but it didn’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/6 "2023-01-19T01:36:39Z")
My copy of the Times is printed in Boston and trucked to Montreal 6 days of the week. For some reason unknown to me the Sunday paper comes from Buffalo. Twice this winter we didn’t get it because Buffalo had such bad storms. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/7 "2023-01-19T01:45:00Z")
My father, who lives in Green Bay, has been complaining to me about how increasingly useless the local newspaper (the Green Bay Press-Gazette) has become. Because they no longer print the Press-Gazette in Green Bay (it’s now printed in either Appleton or Milwaukee, sharing print presses with several other Gannett newspapwers), they put the Press-Gazette to bed in mid-afternoon of the day before it’s delivered – thus, anything that happens after about 3pm never makes it into the newspaper, including many sports events (such as Packer games). The Press-Gazette has little in the way of local news anymore (as they have few, if any, writers based in Green Bay now), and they don’t even distribute a paper on Saturdays. I’m sure that they assume that readers who want up-to-date news will go to their website, but my 89-year-old dad isn’t good at using computers anymore, and he just wants to be able to read the paper with his morning coffee. In the past, there were other regional newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal) which had copies printed up in Green Bay (at the Press-Gazette’s printing facilities), and one could have a subscription delivered to you in Green Bay. I looked into all of those papers a few months ago (to give my father a gift subscription), and discovered that none of them will deliver to Green Bay anymore. I haven’t yet looked into the New York Times or Washington Post, but I am guessing that I’ll learn similar bad news there. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/8 "2023-01-19T01:48:30Z")
The Wall Street Journal used to have a printing plant in the town I went to college in - there was a giant satellite dish on the roof that received the daily print runs. They did the printing for the Midwest market. They closed early last year due to the rise in digital subscriptions. > **[Wall Street Journal closing BG plant – BG Independent News](https://bgindependentmedia.org/wall-street-journal-closing-bg-plant/)** ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/9 "2023-01-19T14:27:56Z")
What a double-edged sword - technology enable remote printing of newspapers to reach further markets, and has also (partially) sounded their death-knell. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2023, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/10 "2023-01-19T14:59:36Z")
It’s different for the international market; the NYT has a widespread international edition (which used to be called the International Herald Tribune but is now simply the NYT, International Edition) which is, in fact, printed at the facilities of cooperating papers around the world, rather than flown in from New York. This is an area where markets conditions and consumer expectations have changed. I remember that in the 1990s, travel guidebooks for cities would often include addresses of international newsstands where you could get a wide range of international papers, so that foreign tourists could read their accustomed home papers, often still on the same day. This expectation is now not there anymore, save for some very big names like NYT, WSJ or FT; other than that, people don’t expect print newspapers to be easily available abroad, since everything is digital anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2023, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/11 "2023-01-22T06:47:35Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > It’s different for the international market; the NYT has a widespread international edition (which used to be called the International Herald Tribune but is now simply the NYT, International Edition) which is, in fact, printed at the facilities of cooperating papers around the world, rather than flown in from New York. And the last time I got it in Europe it was quite different from the US version. In fact the California edition is different from the NY edition, especially on Sundays. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/distant-distribution-of-local-newspapers/978317/12 "2023-01-22T15:16:44Z")
Keep in mind the _New York Times_ also has a Late Edition, (Late Late Edition, Afternoon Edition… ?) that is never going to make it all the way out to California.