ATHOL — Newspaper deliveries were delayed Monday due to a “perfect storm” of mechanical problems with the printing press Sunday night, said Newspaper of New England’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Michael Moses.
Also affected were the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Greenfield Recorder, which are also owned by Newspapers of New England and are printed with the same press, located in Northampton.
Normally printing is finished by about 12:30 a.m., but a string of problems Sunday night stretched the process until about 5:30 a.m. Monday morning, Moses said.
Around 10:30 p.m. an electrical transformer in the machine blew up, which took an electrician several hours to diagnose and fix, Moses said. Then a paper jam in the machine caused another delay of about an hour, and then inking issues delayed things again, Moses said.
Consequently the papers were not delivered to the Athol Post Office by the deadline to ensure they would go out with Monday’s mail delivery. Monday’s paper will be delivered along with the Tuesday edition. The online edition was posted as usual. All print customers have access to the Athol Daily News website and the e-edition at atholdailynews.com.
Bundle drops to area newsstands were also delayed several hours.
The Daily News’ office received several phone calls from customers on Monday morning. The circulation department may be contacted at 978-249-3535 or circulation@atholdailynews.com.