WATERLOO - Starting Tuesday, The Courier will be printed at a state-of-the- art printing facility at Color Web Printers, a division of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. It will be printed there daily and trucked back to Waterloo.

"As The Courier approaches our 150th anniversary (in January), we are engaging in a new phase of operation," said Dave Braton, Courier publisher. "Readers and advertisers will notice a better printed product, and we'll gain several options for creative use of newsprint and color."

He added that "printing at Color Web will provide superior printing on some of the latest technology available."

The move means The Courier rebuilt offset Goss press, highly visible on the west side of downtown through the former department store windows at Commercial and West Fourth streets, will run no longer.

It also means the layoff of 18 full-time and 34 part-time pressroom and packaging department employees at The Courier. All received severance packages.

The relationship between The Courier and Color Web Printers is not new. Color Web has been printing The Courier's Sunday color comics for years. In addition, The Courier utilized Color Web as a backup when mechanical problems occurred three years ago, and for 10 days in the spring during the June flood.

The plant also prints the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and many other familiar publications.

The news was announced to Courier employees Monday afternoon after Monday's edition was printed.

"This is bitter-sweet. A number of employees are impacted, yet this transition will provide The Courier a state-of-the-art press and printing facility that will benefit us in the years to come," said Braton.

Braton said the reason behind the decision is two-fold -- an aging press in Waterloo and positioning for the future.

The Courier has been printed on a late vintage Goss letterpress that was converted to an offset press in 1983.

According to pressroom manager Scott Snyder, one of those impacted by the decision, said the press has gone through several upgrades through the years, including a digital inking system, spray dampening and a plate lockup system.

But a new press was going to be needed eventually, and with a cost that would run in the millions, Snyder and Braton said that the Courier building is just too old to handle a new press, and it became more cost-effective to utilize a central printing plant.

"Installation of a new press in Waterloo was extensively reviewed, along with our chosen option. It is rare to have a major press facility of Color Web's nature less than an hour away. They have extensive press capacity available. In today's economic environment, maximum use of facilities and resources is a must," Braton said.

Snyder said the move is "unfortunate," but one that is not surprising. "It is more beneficial to The Courier as a whole" to centralize printing operations, he said.

Braton and Snyder praised the work of the employees in the packaging and press operations, calling them outstanding employees.

As a central printing facility, Color Web Printers prints Cedar Rapids Gazette, King Features Syndicate comics for more than 130 newspapers, The Daily Iowan, Iowa Farmer Today and the Lifestyles and "Get Out" sections for the St. Louis Dispatch.

Central printing operations have been common and are increasing in the newspaper industry. It is not unique in Iowa. The Iowa City Press Citizen is printed at the Des Moines Register's printing plant in Des Moines.

Newspapers such as McClatchy's Sacramento Bee and The Washington Times have moved to central print sites for printing.

Color Web Printers was established in 1988. The company uses soy-based inks and recycled stocks. It uses a Goss Universal 70 press, which can produce 20,000 pages in an hour. It is located in a 207,000-square-foot building near the intersection of Interstate 380 and Highway 30 in Cedar Rapids. The company's Web site said the press has 11 four-color press towers and five folders, considerably larger than The Courier's press.