Times Mirror Will Spend $385 Million on New Facilities

Directors of Times Mirror voted Wednesday to spend $385 million on new presses and facilities for the Los Angeles Times, including a new downtown printing plant on a 26-acre site near the Santa Monica Freeway at the corner of Alameda and 8th streets.

The project, the biggest capital expenditure in The Times’ history, will involve the first move of the paper’s downtown presses since the paper built its existing production facility across from City Hall in 1935.

Construction will begin this fall, and the new plant is expected to be running in 1990.

As part of the project, the company said it also will install new presses at The Times’ Orange County plant in Costa Mesa and will upgrade presses at the San Fernando plant in Chatsworth. Those projects will be completed by 1992.

Times Mirror Chairman and Chief Executive Robert F. Erburu told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting that the new plant, which will include 12 new custom-made color presses, will result in “more uniform high-quality” reproduction and allow The Times to print more color without reducing the number of pages in the paper.

Erburu also said he hopes the new plant will strengthen downtown redevelopment in Los Angeles. Roughly 1,000 employees will move from Times Mirror Square to the new printing site when it is completed. The move is expected to reduce crowding for the paper’s editorial, advertising and other departments, which will remain at the Civic Center site.

Erburu said the project will be financed from cash generated by operations and will not require new borrowing.

Tom Johnson, publisher of The Times and vice chairman of Times Mirror, said The Times now has circulation of 1,103,656 daily and 1,368,105 Sunday--and the largest home-delivered circulation of any U.S. newspaper.

At the annual meeting, held at Times Mirror Square, the company also announced the promotion of Charles R. Redmond to executive vice president. In that post, Redmond, 60, will have responsibility over all corporate staff activities. Redmond was previously senior vice president for finance and administration, and also has served as vice president for administration and services and assistant to the president. He joined the company in 1964 as corporate director of personnel.

In his address to the annual meeting, Erburu said the company has completed a three-year corporate restructuring to divest weaker operations and concentrate on core businesses: newspapers, magazines, broadcast and cable television and technical and professional publishing.

In the last three years, the company has sold $1 billion worth of assets, Erburu said, “one of the nation’s largest (restructurings) that wasn’t prompted by outside takeover threats.”

Over the last decade, Erburu said, Times Mirror revenue has increased at an average annual rate of 11.5%, operating earnings have grown at a rate of 14.5% per year and dividends per share over the last 10 years have grown at an average annual rate of 18%.

Also at the annual meeting, shareholders approved a corporate amendment to limit the liability of directors of the company and its shareholders for monetary damages “for certain breaches of the duty of care.” Shareholders also reelected six incumbent directors.