UPFRONT

Transcontinental Nabs Pact
MONTREAL—Transcontinental signed an exclusive 15-year contract with Hearst Corp. to print the San Francisco Chronicle, related products, and to provide postpress services. The deal is worth in excess of $1 billion. Transcontinental will start production in the spring of 2009 at a new, state-of-the-art Bay Area plant. The printer’s planned investments for the building and new gear are estimated at more than $200 million. The Chronicle, one of 12 daily newspapers owned by Hearst, has the 14th largest ABC-verified circulation in the United States, according to Transcontinental.