Bradford Publishing press a printing hub for WNY papers

By Sara Furlong | The Bradford Era

BRADFORD, Pa. — The Buffalo News is printed in Cleveland. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and other Upstate New York newspapers are printed each day as far away as New Jersey.

But sister newspapers The Bradford Era and the Olean Times Herald are printed in … Bradford. Along with other Bradford Publishing Co. printings like The Salamanca Press and Allegany County Source, as well as work for the East Aurora Advertiser, Springville Journal, Arcade Herald Courier and many other publications too numerous to name.

They’re all printed at 43 Main St., Bradford.

With much fanfare in the early 2000s, the Buffalo News announced its addition of a multi-story, multimillion dollar printing press. It now sits idle, which left several area publications with no press to which they could send pages.

“Reductions in volume and other variables forced certain operations to shutter and piggy-back with other plants for their printing needs,” said Bradford Publishing Co. Chief Operating Officer Jim Bonn. “Deals were brokered and here we are.

“At the end of the day it came down to who could match (as closely as possible) things like deadlines, volume and delivery,” Bonn explained. “We were able to accept the business based on their deadlines and publication dates.”

The Bradford Era scrapped a printing press in the early 1980s. It was made largely of cast iron and it was too heavy to remove piecemeal, so workers smashed it apart with sledgehammers. It’s buried now under the concrete of the pressroom floor.

The Era moved on from that old letter press to a Cottrell 845, a workhorse of a printing press with units 12 feet tall. Staff soon realized that, while the Cottrell could handle a heavy workload, it wasn’t nimble enough to accommodate the variety of commercial printing The Era would soon take on.

The paper then moved to its current Harris V15, which can run fast enough to consume a 7-mile roll of newsprint in less than 40 minutes. Because the press in Bradford was newer, Bradford Publishing shut down printing at the Times Herald building a few years ago and consolidated press operations in Bradford.

The narrow Era building stretches from Main Street to Boylston Street, with its press and mailrooms comprising roughly half its length. The newsroom and the business office make up the other half.

Bradford Publishing’s printing commitments require a significant volume of newsprint to be kept on hand. To that end, it acquired the portion of the building between and behind The Era building and Main Street Mercantile to house the many rolls of paper.

Operating a printing press, like the one in use in Bradford, is a skilled craft. Pressmen undergo formal — and informal — apprenticeships to master the process, which some might argue is almost an art.

Longtime Era pressman Mark Brahaney, now retired, said, “I don’t want to insult an artist, but it’s definitely a job that requires a lot of skill.

“You have to understand chemistry and physics — there’s chemistry involved in offset printing and you need to know how the press operates physically. You’ve got to be on your toes.”

Brahaney finished his New York state apprenticeship in the early 1980s. The Era’s four-color process printing entails as many stations on the press. Brahaney explained new pressmen are broken in on just one unit; black, for instance.

“If someone’s mechanically inclined and has good sense, it might take six to nine months to get him tuned in on that station,” Brahaney said. “His gears have to be turning, otherwise there will be a lot of spoilage.”

Spoilage refers to the newsprint wasted while the press ramps up and the images come into registration. He said it can take years to get a new press operator up to speed and there will “still be a lot of things you don’t understand.

“There have been a few people over the years with the ability to apply themselves to what we were doing,” Brahaney recalled. “There’s a lot of turnover; it’s not for everybody. You develop a passion for it. You’ve got to want to get dirty.”