Minnesota Star Tribune closes Minneapolis printing plant as staff reflect on the end of an era

The smell of ink, paper, oil and metal clung to the air. Shredded newspaper dangled from a milelong stretch of conveyors that shuttled millions of pages every week.

After decades of work and generations of history, the Minnesota Star Tribune has stopped the presses at its Heritage Center printing plant in Minneapolis. The plant’s last newspaper was printed Dec. 28.

In September, the Star Tribune announced plans to sell the North Loop plant, lay off 125 workers and move printing to Des Moines to save money as print circulation continues to decline.

As more readers find their news online, the Star Tribune is meeting its audience with an expanding digital presence. But the traditional newspaper will still be printed and delivered seven days a week.

The Heritage facility has whirred with grand machinery and steadfast workers who sent the “daily miracle” to Minnesotans’ doorsteps for nearly 40 years. But teams of hundreds whittled down to dozens as the site most recently operated at 18% of its full capacity.

While Heritage’s discontinuation seemed inevitable to many familiar with the volatile newspaper industry, the plant’s closure signaled the end of an era.

Over the past few weeks, production workers, many of whom have worked at the plant for decades, and other newspaper staff celebrated the legacy of the plant at 800 N. 1st Street..

Chris Holtz followed his father and grandfather to become a foreman, managing workers and their machines at Heritage. Holtz spent 30 years climbing the ranks from pressman to foreman, often returning home covered in ink or smelling of soap.

“This was where people came to retire, because we had such good conditions,” he said.

Raul Vazquez, vice president of operations, tried to ensure that plant workers grew to know each other and feel welcomed. Those decades of memories spent on softball, birthdays, deaths, births and anniversaries made many workers feel like more than colleagues. “We’re a family,” Vazquez said.

“Our employees here at Heritage often say, ‘I have ink in my blood,’ and that’s literally what it means to them,” he said. “The paper is their life, their livelihood.”

After opening in 1987, the Heritage Center was kept humming by decades of innovation, but falling print readership forced cuts to the site in recent years.

“The fact that we have a fighting chance at turning this company into a modern-day media platform is thanks to the people at this plant who put so much work and innovation into printing our papers,” Grove said.

“We’re in a battle for the future of journalism in our state. We take that really seriously. This chapter has been a really strong one for us, and we’ve got some really exciting chapters ahead too.”

As the print side of the business has shrunk, the newspaper has expanded its digital capabilities with new digital-only roles in the newsroom as well as in-person experiences, such as the outdoors event Strib Unbound and the North Star Summit ideas festival.

Printing the newspaper out of state will push the Star Tribune even more into a digital mindset. Print story deadlines will be earlier to make up for the time it takes to ship the papers, meaning the Star Tribune’s website will be even more crucial for disseminating the latest news.

Company officials have fielded “tons of calls” from brokers and developers hoping to bid on the 13-acre Heritage property. Some want to transform the campus into office space or even an NBA arena.

“We’ve put out the best product we could, and I think we all did a really good job,” he said. “We’re proud of our work that we’ve done. And now it’s just time to move on.”