EDMONTON, AB—The Edmonton Journal (Postmedia Network) has announced on its blog that it will be outsourcing printing to a new St. Albert plant starting next summer, with the Journal's Eastgate facility to close resulting in the loss of 70 full-time jobs.

"The change will provide the Journal with better reproduction, more colour and greater size flexibility for the print edition," reads the blog post.

The blog entry noted that increased demand for colour and new technologies has made the Eastgate plant's "1980-vintage presses" outdated. "New presses are prohibitively expensive, costing tens of millions of dollars. That has led many North American newspapers to outsource their printing operations as a way of improving quality and decreasing costs."

The new St. Albert plant is being built by Great West Newspapers (GWN). Meanwhile, KBA has posted on its website that GWN has ordered a new Colora press for the new facility. "The press can handle all three newspaper press production formats including single, double and triple width," notes the site.