When the Chicago Tribune moved the last of its printing operations from the basement of Tribune Tower to the Freedom Center in 1982, the new $185 million plant by the Chicago River was billed as the largest newspaper production facility in North America. On Saturday, the Freedom Center printed its final edition of the Chicago Tribune before facing a demolition deadline and planned redevelopment into a casino. Tribune Publishing is shifting printing operations to the northwest suburban Daily Herald plant, which it purchased in May 2023.
For dozens of production workers, some of whom spent decades tending to 10 massive Goss Metroliner offset presses churning out upward of a million copies of the Tribune and other newspapers each day, their Freedom Center career was filled with sacrifice, camaraderie and by its nature, countless sleepless nights. Their often nocturnal shifts, working while the city slept to ensure that daily newspapers would arrive each morning, meant missing everything from weddings to school plays. But the workers felt pride in their craft, printing the first draft of history for others to read over coffee.
Declining print circulation in the digital age slowed production, diminished the employee ranks, curtailed raises and made the sprawling plant expendable under new ownership. The Sunday edition will be the last Chicago Tribune printed at the Freedom Center, while other titles will make the move to Schaumburg by June 2. For some long-tenured press operators .
