What will Southern Miss?

USM web presses now in Seymour

When the University of Southern Mississippi eradicated their web press department, it was only a matter of a few days before publisher Joe Karl was on the phone with them.
“We discovered that they owned the same kind of presses we do,” said Karl, referring to the Goss Community Web Press equipment installed over a year ago at The Herald’s physical plant in Seymour. “When they announced they were liquidating their equipment, we were only too happy to step in and put it to good use in our community.”
The additional equipment will double the capacity of The Herald’s printing press, allowing them to produce twice the former level of copies per hour.
“This is yet another major step forward for The Herald,” said Managing Editor David Grimes. “Once again, it should be glaringly obvious to the community that the Herald is serious about investing in the infrastructure necessary to make Seymour a major player in the publishing industry.”
“The fact that the Karls are willing to make investment after major investment shows in sharp relief the confidence and respect they have in and for Seymour and the growth factors they are expecting,” Grimes continued.
The press capability of The Herald, which was already virtually unheard-of for an operation of this size, has now taken another giant step forward.
“We are currently accepting a large number of outside printing jobs for other publications,” Grimes noted, “including other newspapers, a Spanish language news organ, a magazine-style fulfillment, and are expanding our capabilities to include even more color and a greater number of pages per section than we were previously able to accommodate.”
The addition of the new units gives The Herald the ability to provide interior “spot” colors in each section, or the capability of expanding those sections to a larger number of pages.
“We’re going to use these new abilities to their fullest,” Grimes said, “and our readers and subscribers can expect to see a larger and more colorful product as a result,” as soon as the new units come online, he continued.
“There are virtually no operations of our size that own their own means of production,” Grimes noted. “Almost every publication of The Herald’s size outsources their printing to another company.”
The Herald’s operations have grown to include five different publications, including The Seymour Herald, The Smoky Mountain Herald, The Herald Shopper, The Club Herald, and the new alternative publication entitled The Herald Open Vibe.
“The new press units are especially a blessing to the Vibe,” said Open Vibe Editor Kevin Mackie. “The younger reader demands lots of color in their reading material, and we are pleased to be able to deliver additional color in each publication.”
The new capabilities should also attract additional advertisers who need spot color on their interior display ads, such as grocery stores, department stores, and pharmacies.
“We can now handle just about anything that a much larger and older publishing company can produce,” Grimes said. “There are many many publications and companies that have been around for a long time, some of them over a century, who don’t have the amazing capabilities that we now enjoy,” he said.
“We are thrilled to be able to bring this new process to Seymour, and hope to show the east Tennessee area how vital and energetic our community is.”