Gannett Closing So Jersey Printing Facility

A Gannett-owned South Jersey newspaper is laying off nearly 140 workers in Cherry Hill, a move that will impact the printing production of its own paper in addition to that of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, the Philly Business Journal reports.

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice filed Thursday, the Courier Post said that its production facility used for the printing and packaging of several South Jersey and regional newspapers will close on June 23. The notice said that 139 full and part-time workers in the mailroom and press operations will be laid off.

The facility produces the Courier-Post, the Burlington County Times and the Vineland Daily Journal, all of which are owned by Gannett, as well as the Inquirer, which is owned by public interest organization the Lenfest Institute. In an email to the Business Journal, the Courier Post declined to list other non-Gannett publications that will be impacted.

In an article about the decision, the Courier Post said that Gannett’s three South Jersey newspapers will move production to Gannett’s Rockaway, New Jersey, facility. Other publications such as the Inquirer will now be printed and processed at Gannett’s facility in Wilmington, Delaware. McLean, Virginia-based Gannett also owns the Wilmington News Journal and the Bucks County Courier Times and Intelligencer.

The article said the future of the Cherry Hill facility and its presses is still being determined. According to New Jersey property records from 2023, the 15.5-acre site was assessed at $7.575 million.

For the Inquirer, it is the second move of its printing operations since 2021, when it closed its printing plant on River Road in Upper Merion Township and laid off roughly 500 employees there. At the time, it moved its printing operations to Gannett’s Cherry Hill facility. On Thursday, an Inquirer spokesman confirmed the paper's printing will move to Wilmington.