Pittsburgh

Block Communications said it will lay off 136 people at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and 131 at The Blade of Toledo, OH, a decision that will help cut costs at the two money-losing dailies where the company has been wrangling with unions for more than a year over concessions.

Production and printing employees would be affected as both newspapers prepare to leave their long-time printing facilities in Downtown and Toledo for new or cheaper plants. Newsroom and advertising workers will be spared, company and union leaders said on Tuesday.

Block told employees in Toledo in a recent letter that losses exceeded $8.5 million

A former solar panel manufacturing facility near Pittsburgh International Airport will become the Post-Gazette's new printing plant and distribution and production center.

"The Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh's oldest continuing business, will soon be produced in one of the world's most advanced printing plants," said John Robinson Block, the publisher. "We think the readers of Pennsylvania's second-largest newspaper will be pleased."

The Binding Industries Assn. is pleased to announce the spring 2013 BIA Annual Conference will be held on April 8–10 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown in Indianapolis. It will feature plant tours of three top-performing companies, including D.E. Baugh Co., Eckhart & Co. and Ross Gage.

The Binding Industries Assn. has announced the winners of the 2012 Product of Excellence (POE) awards. For more than three decades, the POE awards have recognized outstanding examples of craftsmanship in binding, graphic finishing, information packaging, and custom loose-leaf manufacturing.

PITTSBURGH—Sometimes it only takes the slightest bit of incorrect punctuation to cause a slight headache, a dash of anger and more than a few refund checks. Just ask the good folks at Pittsburgh Water & Sewer, who ended up with irate phone calls from customers who were billed thousands of dollars in January for something that typically generates a minimal charge.

Mark Stevens, CEO of management consulting and marketing firm MSCO and also a popular journalist and media commentator, will be one of two keynote speakers at the Printing Industries of America's upcoming Converge Conference. Stevens will share tactics to help graphic communications firms become marketing resources for their clients, especially as those clients are often lacking good marketing know-how.

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