ITEMS of interest

But there are fewer of them, contends Bob McMichen, former chairman of the Union Printers Home board. It's all because of one thing, he says: computerization.

"I can do more with my computer at home than 10 printers can do," he adds. "It's one of those things you have to accept. You don't fight it…It's the passing of the hot-metal era. It will never be what it was because they don't need that many people to put out a newspaper."