Post printing plant to shut doors sooner

The Washington Post Co. announced in a statement yesterday it will be closing its College Park printing plant sooner than expected to cut costs.

The Post Co. announced in February it would close the plant - located near the intersection of University Boulevard and Greenbelt Road - in June 2010 and print only at its second facility in Springfield, Va.

The new announcement means the city's largest taxpayer and an employer of some 250 people may be gone from College Park even sooner.

The Post Co. pays $272,000 in city taxes each year, city finance director Steve Groh said in February. Though that makes it the city's largest taxpayer, District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin said the city allows for a $300,000 margin of error while writing the budget, which is more than the revenue that will be lost. He added that very few of the plant's employees are College Park residents, so job loss isn't a big concern for the city.

Washington Post Co. spokeswoman Rima Calderon said yesterday she was unaware of the new announcement and therefore could not comment on how much money this change would save The Post Co. The company's newspaper division lost $82.7 million in the third quarter, according to its latest earnings release.

The statement said The Post Co. did not yet know how soon the plant would close but that it would be before June 2010.

The company had planned to move one of its printing presses from the College Park facility - which opened less than a decade ago - to the Springfield one, but has since decided against it, which will expedite the closing of the College Park facility.

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