Letters to the Editor: As The Times’ Olympic press shuts down, readers give thanks for print journalism

To the editor: I have looked forward to reading the Los Angeles Times nearly every day since I first arrived at LAX decades ago. While I was waiting for my ride to pick me up at the airport, another traveler said to me, “Here, I’m done with this,” and dropped the L.A. Times in my lap. (“Storied presses print L.A. Times for the last time as production moves to Riverside,” March 10)

I had never seen a paper full of such great content and so many wide-ranging views. That was December 1976.

Since then, I have not always agreed with your editorial opinions. But I have seen your reporting change to some of the finest in any national newspaper.

Your paper (that is, my paper) has always been very important to me. Nearly every news story in Southern California begins with reporting in The Times. Only a print newspaper has the editorial power to enforce accuracy and other such standards in its reporting.

Some of my favorite sections of the newspaper have disappeared over the years, and I miss them dearly. I still look forward to my digital Los Angeles Times every day.

I wish the paper the best of luck, despite having to move out of its longtime Olympic printing plant in downtown L.A.

George Cowie, Orange

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To the editor: It was a coincidence Sunday’s print newspaper contained the story of the closure of the Olympic printing plant. The previous day, I overheard the following conversation in my local grocery store:

A worker probably in his mid-30s asked an older worker what type of jobs he had done before. The older worker said that he had been in the newspaper distribution business — to which the younger worker sincerely asked, “Are they still around?”

The older employee listed several local papers where he had worked; among them was The Times.

Newspapers that have already closed may never be resurrected, but the importance of local papers to our communities cannot be overstated. Just look at the coverage of the multitude of local elections and how that journalism affects our communities.

We ignore this young worker’s lack of knowledge about newspapers still existing at great peril.

Paula Schaefer, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: Here at age 71, I doubt there were many my age who didn’t get a high school tour of The Times’ Olympic plant to see how a newspaper was put together.

My friends and I would even go to the loading dock at 9 p.m. to buy editions off the truck to get the Santa Anita horse racing results in the pre-internet days.

I was at the Olympic Plant grand opening and also toured the Orange County presses. No one ever imagined The Times would leave its newsroom and administrative offices at Times Mirror Square in downtown L.A. or the incredible Olympic plant.

A sincere thank-you to the men and women who stayed up all night to print and pack The Times.

Jeff Prescott, La Jolla

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To the editor: With no money, no office or even a computer, I gathered a dozen high school students around my kitchen table and told them we were launching a newspaper.

L.A. Youth, the newspaper by and about Los Angeles teens, gave young people a place to tell their stories. In our first year, 1988, we published just two issues, circulation 2,500.

By 1992 we had grown beyond our wildest dreams. The Los Angeles Times started to donate printing and distribution. Twenty-five years later, we were publishing six issues annually with a press run of 70,000 and an estimated readership of 400,000 per issue.

In 2013, I closed the door. Foundation grants were hard to secure, and The Times could no longer donate printing. I was devastated. We took on issues such as racial discrimination, life on the streets and foster care.

The Times’ staff — reporters, photographers, production, truck drivers and executives — kept the presses rolling for us. We wouldn’t have had this success without The Times, which gave teens the power of the press.

Donna Myrow, Palm Springs

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To the editor: My wife and I were greatly saddened to learn of the closure of the Olympic printing plant. We’ve held the daily edition in our hands pretty much every morning since moving here in 1975.

But, we were happy to read about the people working in the plant. We wish them well and are full of gratitude for their labor of love all these years.

Steve Tarzynski, Santa Monica

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To the editor: My first job after graduating college was at the Independent, a daily Long Beach Press-Telegram newspaper. It was 1970.

The printing presses were in the basement, big as locomotives. At the start of every shift the pressmen would tear off a sheet of newsprint and fold it into an origami-like square hat. I was given one when I toured the place on my first day of work. Wish I still had it.

The newspaper put out five editions a day. The whole enterprise, from the basement to the executive offices on the top floor, felt purposeful and important.

It was. I’m grateful to have experienced that time and place.

David Boule, Torrance