In a third round of bad news for industry in Middlesex County, Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, announced that it will shut down its South Brunswick printing plant in mid-2010.
The plant, which employs 76 at Route 1 and Ridge Road — just around the corner from Wyeth, which will close as part of Pfizer’s reconfiguration — will be moved to Bronx, New York, as part of a consolidation.
According to Dow spokesman Bob Christie, the move is designed to improve efficiency and operations, namely color capacity and the ability to do insertions onsite, which cannot be done efficiently in South Brunswick.
The Bronx printing facility is where the New York Post is printed. News Corp. owns Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.
Christie said the company ruled out upgrades to the South Brunswick plant because they would be too costly. He did not mention the fate of the workers in South Brunswick.
The move is the latest round of trouble for Dow’s news ventures. Last month, following large staff reductions at the New York Times and Forbes magazine, the Wall Street Journal announced it would close its Boston bureau. The plant closure in South Brunswick will be the sixth in the past two years for the company nationwide.
Dow Jones Printing Plant (DJ), Route 1 & Ridge Road, Princeton 08540; 609-520-5720; fax, 609-520-5742. Darrell Foster, production manager. Home page: www.dowjones.com.
