Keep the Orange County Plant Running

Now that we're into the third week of the new time formats for the main news sections of the newspaper being printed we had better keep the Orange County Production Facility open at least till the end of this year, with the infrastructure of the Olympic Production Facility in limbo.

Yesterday we experienced twenty-four web breaks and had to transfer eighty thousand copies from the Olympic Facility to the Costa Mesa Facility, also known as the Orange County Plant.

With a plate starter at 5:34 p.m. we still could not produce our allotment of newspapers in time to print the stand alone LAT Extra Section at 11:30 p.m.

Everyone working at the Olympic Facility is leaving the place tired, as we run up and down the mammoth superstructures of the printing presses. We have cut manning to the point even the press room manager, Johnny Walker, is now working as a pressman on the mighty presses making reel changes. Crew supervisors are installing printing plates and making lunch reliefs as there are not enough men and women needed to get everyone a thirty minute lunch break.

I have been questioned regarding the start times of the next day's publication, due to missing sports scores and stories, here's how it's supposed to run:

Sunday through Tuesday the schedules remain the same, the newspaper is printed between 11:00p.m. and midnight.

Wednesday through Friday the main sections begin production at 6:00 p.m., with the LAT Extra printed after 11:30 p.m. as a separate section, with updated news.

Saturday night the press run begins at 10:00 p.m. instead of 11:30 p.m., and replates are only mounted when the presses break down, and they break down often.

As I said, the Los Angeles Times had better think twice about closing the Orange County Facility at this time, or we might not get the paper out.