Tour the Detroit News & Free Press Printing Press with us! (Saturday, October 7th, 2017)

 

We will be touring the Detroit News & Free Press Printing Press this Saturday, October 7th, 2017.

We only have 10 spots left, so hurry! Due to limited space, you must be pre-registered for this event.

You must RSVP with Ryan Place by emailing him: ryanplace @ fastmail dot fm.

The tour begins promptly at 1pm and ends at 2:30pm.

Cost is $10.00 per person. You can pay either in cash or check made payable to “The Book Club of Detroit”. We are using this tour as a fundraiser for the Club. You will give your money to Ryan before the tour begins.

Photography is allowed.

There is unfortunately no wheelchair access. And wear good shoes because there is a lot of walking and steps.

Detroit News & Free Press Printing Press

6200 Metropolitan Parkway

Sterling Heights, Michigan 

 

About the Facility:

480,000sq ft 6-story facility opened in 1971 and became one of the most technologically advanced printing facilities in the world in 2005. 

The entire facility is an engineering marvel of high-tech wizardry, consolidation and automation.

Both the Detroit Free Press (c. 1831) and Detroit News (c. 1873) are printed here after agreeing to combine their business operations in 1987. 

The facility consists of six MAN Roland GeoMAN 75 offset press lines. Each towering press line is 6-stories (90ft) high, 540ft long and can print 75,000 full newspapers (ie: 7-sections, 80pgs, 40pgs of color) per hour. 30 roll stands per line.

Press line is “offset” because the paper itself never actually touches the printing plate. For higher quality, printing blankets (big rubber cylinders) offset the ink and image on the paper.

Fun Fact:

Prior to 1884, daily newspapers were 8-pages long maximum because of the labor required to typeset with moveable type. In 1884, the Linotype machine was invented.