What’s going on at 400 E. Park Avenue

This being Labor Day Weekend, I decided it would be a good time to touch on something most of us have in common: Work.

In particular, I want to talk about some of the work being done every day at the Chico Enterprise-Record.

It’s no secret these are changing times for the newspaper industry. Some studies have shown more than 2,000 newspapers (almost all of them weeklies) have ceased publication in the past 15 years. Around 400 newspapers have closed just since the start of the pandemic.

That adds up to thousands of lost jobs and far too many communities that have lost their best source of local news coverage.

That’s the bad news. For Chico and our surrounding communities, here’s the good news.

We’re still here, and thanks in large part to the continued support of our readers and advertisers, along with our consolidated approach to some newspaper production duties throughout the north state, we’ll be here for a long time to come.

I’ve been asked, a lot, about the status of our building on East Park Avenue in recent months. In a nutshell, here’s what’s going on: Our newsroom (and Design Center, which I’ll get back to in a minute) has been working remotely since March 2020. That’s because of two things: We had a pandemic, and our staff simply doesn’t need a 10,000 square-foot-room anymore, so the front part of our building is available for lease.

Meanwhile, the rest of our building is as busy with activity as ever — maybe even more so.

That’s because we have a press. Almost no newspaper can make that claim anymore. As a result, our press crew is staying plenty busy.

People are usually surprised when I rattle off the names of newspapers that are printed on our press in Chico. Here goes:

First — we’re printing the Reno Gazette-Journal. You read correctly. Every night, somebody drives the papers from Chico to Reno in a truck, and so far, Donner Summit hasn’t stopped a single edition from reaching the subscribers.

Ditto the Redding Record-Searchlight, which hasn’t had its own press for the past couple of years.

We also print several papers that, unlike Reno and Redding, are owned by our parent company. Those include the Eureka Times-Standard, Woodland Daily Democrat, Red Bluff Daily News and of course locally, the E-R and Oroville MercuryRegister. At various times in the past, we’ve also printed the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Monterey Herald, Lake County RecordBee, Vacaville Reporter and Vallejo Times-Herald — each owned by MediaNews Group, which owns the E-R and more than

100 newspapers across the country.

Our press crew starts in the afternoon and keeps the paper rolls spinning until the early morning hours. Thousands of homes all over Northern California and Nevada get a product that was plated and printed at 400 E. Park Avenue.

That’s part of what we do behind the scenes at the E-R. There’s much more.

For more than eight years, we’ve been the home base of the NorCal Design Center, which designs 12 daily newspapers and three weeklies. (Overseeing this department was my full-time job before becoming editor in January 2019.) Our hardworking crew of 17 people produces all of the pages for the Marin Independent-Journal, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Monterey Herald and nine other daily newspapers from Eureka to the Bay Area; it adds up to around 1,200 pages per week.

And just as the E-R is recognized annually as one of the top newspapers in our state, our Design Center has quickly become known as one of the most efficient in the country.

All here at the E-R.

The work we do daily — under the eye of general manager Mazi Kavoosi,

who takes over as our publisher in three weeks — means we have an extra level of stability that would be the envy of any business in these challenging times. And honestly, the “lease out part of the building” approach is nothing new for newspapers.

I remember working at the San Francisco Chronicle 15 years ago when the paper was losing a great amount of money, with

180 employees spread out in the huge three-story building at Fifth and Mission. So, the Hearst Corporation moved all of us onto the third floor, leased out office space throughout the rest of the building and suddenly we were profitable again.

Taking on this additional work has further guaranteed we’ll remain a vital part of Chico and the surrounding communities for a long time to come. Our extra printing and design work here have also helped further ensure the viability of the other newspapers in our NorCal group.

Finally, thanks to the internet, more people are reading our stories than ever before. We still have a large and loyal base of customers who read our print product, and the number of online subscribers (and advertisers) continues to grow. Our small-but-mighty staff — featuring a mix of veterans and some highly talented young journalists who are already making a huge mark — is committed to maintaining and even improving our long tradition of journalism excellence.

The relationship between any newspaper and its surrounding community is unique, and that’s especially true in Chico. We are, in fact, the longest-operating business in the city, having first published as the Butte Record in 1853.

So, while you can’t stop by the office and visit with me for the time being, please know I’m just an email away. And never forget — I still like meeting people for coffee.