Goss Community Press in pieces for transtasman trip

The Gisborne Herald’s Community Goss Press is pictured half dismantled, but has since started its journey to a new owner in Australia. Picture by Liam Clayton

The Gisborne Herald’s Goss Community press is on its way across The Ditch to Victoria.

The man in charge of the sale, deconstruction and transporting of the press is Melbourne-based Global Press Technologies owner Andy Stephens, who actually sold the press to The Herald in 1994 while working for Goss.

The end of nearly 150 years of printing on-site in Gisborne earlier this year was a sad moment for the Gisborne Herald company, but reflective of what is happening in the wider global newspaper industry.

Herald managing director Michael Muir said the Whanganui Chronicle, Northern Advocate, Bay of Plenty Times, Rotorua Daily Post and Hawke’s Bay Today were all printed by NZME in Auckland, as was Stuff publication The Waikato Times.

The technology which allows newspapers to be printed elsewhere did not even exist 20 years ago, Mr Muir said.

Mr Stephens said his team of four were able to safely dismantle the press and relocate required parts for his customer in Camperdown, Western Victoria.

Herald staff were co-operative although the press room was “a bit tight” for the operation.

WD News Publications publishes four newspapers — Camperdown Chronicle, Trang Express, Mortlake Dispatch and Cobden Timboon Coast Times — along with several other publications.

The Victorian company needed to add extra colour capacity, and the Goss Community’s automation and registered control would help to maintain quality through the run “and take pressure off the operator”.

The base of the press — called a press bed — was bolted and concreted to a depth of two to three metres in the print hall at the Gisborne Herald. The earthquake precaution proved successful.

“It didn’t move at all during the Christmas 2007 earthquake,”  Mr Muir said.

The press was dismantled and secured in two 12m containers and trucked to Napier Port last week.

“We’ve done several of these projects over the years and some bigger ones,” Mr Stephens said.

“It was an ambitious task, but it was completed within the scheduled seven days.”

The press is to be shipped to Tauranga and on to Melbourne.

Mr Stephens is expecting it will arrive in Melbourne on October 20 when he will then have the task of assembling it for his other client.