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The death of print might not be a vague ghost of the future, but rather a concrete fact, complete with a timeline.
In an interview with former LA Weekly editor Steve Mikulan, LA Times pressman Ed Padgett tells Mikulan that, per the Times' senior Vice President, the paper will only be printed for three more years:
What’s happening at the Times these days? They’re expecting a really bad fourth quarter. The senior vice president told us we’ve got three years more of printing the hard copy Times before they shut it down. Our plant manager says five years.
And then what - online only?
Yes.
At the end of the article, Mikulan notes the following: "L.A. Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan told The Frying Pan that the paper has no current plans to cease publication of its print editions."
Padgett, who, according to the article, is a third-generation pressman, has been with the paper for 39 years at their Olympic Boulevard printing plant. He also blogs at the Los Angeles Pressmens 20 Year Club.