Transcontinental Inks Billion Dollar Pact

MONTREAL—Transcontinental Inc. has 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 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.