“That’s it, huh?”
The short sentiment – said by Scott Johnson, an expert in dismantling and assembling web printing presses – punctuated the end of newspaper printing at Evans Print & Media Group in Sparta on Monday, Aug. 3.
Johnson was there on assignment to get the printing press ready for its next journey. It’s time had run out at the 1302 River Road location, where it had resided for the last 30 years.
Despite all the issues it has thrown at the pressmen through the decades, it ran as smoothly as it could for the last run of Monroe County Herald newspapers it would ever print.
Through no fault of the press, the final printing run experienced an extreme delay due to miscommunication between the computer that processes the pages and separates the cyan, magenta, and yellow for each metal plate – the thin sheet of aluminum that is attached onto a cylinder – and the machine that burns the newspaper page artwork onto the plates.
“The plates are stuck, but not in the way they usually are,” said lead pressman Aaron Arnold, who has been dealing with the ink and levers of the trusty Goss since 1988.
It wasn’t really anybody’s fault, but it was the beginning of a very long goodbye.
The Monday, Aug. 3 pages were ready to go to press by 9:30 a.m. The final newspaper rolled off the belt seven hours later after plates had to be made and delivered from 101 miles away in Black Earth. Mishaps stemming from the plate issue kept coming, but it would all eventually work out.
“It’s a fitting end,” said Cindy Downing, an insert stuffer and mailing associate, who’s experienced many a delay – man or machine-made – in her time working with the various newspapers that have been printed that last few years.
Downing was one of serveral pairs of hands on deck, ready, willing, and waiting to be a part of history. Or at the very least, the end of an era.
“It’s a gloomy feeling in here today,” said Gary Peterson, an inserter. “But I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Other folks present for the final hurrah were stoic co-pressman Ron Danielson, mailing manager extraordinaire Ethan Parker, the legendary Darryl Raabe, relatively-new-to-EPMG graphic artists Lauren Lund and Emily Hauer, Herald editor Eric Roellig, delivery racer Tim Muehlenkamp, former Herald sports editor Nate Beier, Record editor Logan Everson, and retiring publisher Greg Evans.
On Monday, Evans Print & Media Group also effectively closed its doors for good following a 28-year run.
Evans started Evans Printing in 1998 after working as production manager for Monroe County Publishers for over a decade.
In 2015, Evans Printing took over Monroe County Publishers and the printing operations at the corner of River Road and Industrial Drive. The business name was changed to Evans Print & Media Group to encompass the publishing aspect of the endeavor.
Eventually, the Sparta Herald and Monroe County Democrat were merged to form one twice-a-week periodical under the name Monroe County Herald, and remained so for the last 10 years.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
A number of new stewards have stepped in to fill Evans’s shoes.
For the commercial side of printing, Wayne Butterfield and wife Pamelia have transitioned the business to a new location under the name Sparta Printing.
As the for Monroe County Herald and Hillsboro Sentry-Enterprise, those two newspapers will be produced by the same existing staff, and then printed by Finger Publishing of Black Earth, Wisconsin.
Yours truly, the Cashton Record, was officially acquired after a series of signatures by current editor Logan Everson on Monday, Aug. 3.
Everson couldn’t be reached for comment, as she was busy typing this story for the first out-of-county printed edition that needed to go to press nearly 24 hours earlier than usual. And she wasn’t comfortable coming up with and typing her own quotes. However, she did want to thank Greg and Sue Evans for keeping her employed for the last 11 years.
Evans had parting words for the community that supported his latest publication.
“I’d like to thank all the readers and advertisers in Cashton for the support over the years,” said Evans. “You’re in good hands.”
Editor’s note: Readers, I hope you didn’t mind the tounge-in-cheek and creative-liberties-fueled ode to the last day of printing.
It was an honor and privilege to be able to create layouts and advertisements, watch them wind through the rollers, and then pick a fresh copy off the conveyor.
The edition you’re reading right now was printed in Lancaster, Wisconsin, the closest web press to Cashton measuring in at 72.8 miles away. I’ve done everything I can think of to ensure a swift, painless delivery this week, but as we know, anything that can go wrong, will.
