The Last Headline Rolls Off The Presses

11:49 p.m.: A plate comes off the ​“bender” of the New Haven Register’s press, and the last home-printed daily newspaper run is ready to roll.

It’s late Saturday, approaching midnight. The last crew of printers is at work at 40 Sargent Dr. on Long Wharf at the plant of the New Haven Register. They’re handling the print run of Sunday’s paper — as they and their predecessors have done at different New Haven locations since 1755 (when the Journal-Courier, the earliest incarnation of what would become today’s Register, first hit the streets). Tonight is the final run. Some 105 full- and part-timers are out of jobs. The Register will still come out every day on paper; starting today, the Register will outsource its printing to the Hartford Courant, part of a corporate ​“Digital First” strategy to concentrate resources on online journalism. (Click here for background on that, here for the Register’s coverage of the press’s closure.)

We’re joining the crew on their final hours performing what will now be a lost art in New Haven.

At 11:49 p.m., the FastTrack TRAKmateII laser gets its page layouts from the computers upstairs — then burns the images into 276 x 578 mm AGFA plates. Today’s front-page plate reads, ​“FIRE, EXPLOSION ROCK CITY NEIGHBORHOOD.”

Below the fold is the Register’s story about the end of its presses. Tom Powers (pictured) tells me that story would have been above the fold, if not for the Howard Avenue fire.

The plate-bender — an ​“International VIPB II” — then bends up the plates (called ​“registration”) so that they’ll line up properly once they’re in the printing press machines.

Powers, 60, is the electromechanical supervisor of the plant. He’s been doing that for seven years. He’ll be looking for a job once he’s done, but he’s not too concerned — he used to make auto parts, and he thinks his skills are ​“marketable” in a lot of different industrial settings. It’s a shame the presses are closing, he says. On the other hand: ​“When I’m done here, I’m not going to subscribe to the New Haven Register. I can get all my information online.”

12:36 p.m.: Pete Readies A Cork

The rolls of paper that end up in the presses — which weigh 712 pounds each and are more than seven miles long apiece — are rolled up on cardboard ​“corks.” Peter Mills is cutting the excess paper off this cork so it can be ready to roll up more paper later. Pete’s the longest-running pressman at the Register, having worked there for 40 years. He’s 57 and will be looking for a job, preferably in delivery, once he leaves. ​“I have a few things in the works outside the newspaper business,” he says, but if he doesn’t find a job right away, ​“I get the summer off.”

1:07 a.m.: Ken Checks The Page Edges

Ken Drake, 40, has been a pressman for 20 years; for two of them, he’s been at the Register. ​“Third time I’ve been through it,” he says of the closing of the presses. ​“Each paper keeps outsourcing.” He’s worked as a pressman in Norwalk and in New York. Drake said he’d like to follow the printing presses up to Hartford, but he’s not sure if they’re still hiring. Meanwhile, on this final run, he’s busy ​“checking the registration.“That means making sure the sheets in the bundle that makes the newspaper are properly lined up.

1:10 a.m.: Bob Takes A Paper

Bob Treco Jr., 51, has been working as a supervisor to the pressmen for two and a half years. Before that, he was a pressman himself in New York. ​“It’s very sad,” he says of his last night on the job. ​“Everything’s so up in the air right now. … I hope that I can stay in the newspaper industry until I retire, but I don’t know if it’s going to last that long.”

1:15 a.m. Elber Makes A Mark

Elber Santos is 27; he’s been working as a pressman for six years. How does it feel to be on his last night on the job? ​“Good,” he says simply. He started off in the mailroom; he likes this job better. He’s making a mark on the press machine because the colors are a bit off; there’s a little bit of green on the side of a photo. So he makes a mark as a reference point to know where he should place the next plate.

1:22 a.m.: Bob Replaces The Plates

The aluminum plates wear out more easily than they should, says pressman Bob Harrison, because they’re not maintained the way they used to be. ​“Physically keeping up with the job is very demanding,” Harrison says. He’s worked at the Register for 27 years. There used to be more guys working on shifts; now ​“we’re all shuffling around covering each other.” For his part, Harrison is ​“a little relieved” that his job is coming to and end. He’s ready to retire, but at 63, he’s not quite there yet. He’ll be collecting unemployment. As for finding another job, he’s not optimistic. ​“Who’s going to hire a 63 and a half year-old newspaper pressman when the industry is dying?”

1:32 a.m.: Mike Spots A Problem

One of the red letters in the top headline has some white spots in it. Mike Tellier wants to know why. Is it because the plates are wearing out? It could be, says Bob, but he’s not sure. Tellier, 33, has worked at the Register for just over three years. He’s a ​“computer-to-plate” (CTP) operator. CTP operators monitor the computer images that get sent from the editors in the newsroom over to the printing plant.

“It kinda sucks not to have a job anymore, you know?” Tellier says. A bass player, he hopes to get back into music. He’s not too impressed with the Journal Register Company’s ​“Digital First, Print Last” strategy: ​“All they care about is the number of Twitter followers they have,” he says. ​“That’s not the business. That’s a high school kid saying ​‘Look how many friends I have!’”

2:21 a.m.: Page 1, Final Cut

The last front page rolls off the presses — covered in soot, and unusable. It’s the 46,005th regular-edition copy printed tonight by the printing press machine known as ​“A.” The Goss Metroliner has two presses, known as A and B. By this point, B has already printed its last Register. But the news will go on.