The Washington Times plans to outsource printing and postproduction of the daily newspaper to The (Baltimore) Sun, beginning Sept. 8.

A memo issued by Times General Manager Dick Amberg said it was economically infeasible for the newspaper to maintain its Goss International Corp. Urbanite press line.

“Our current equipment and capabilities had become inadequate for the present and untenable for our planned growth,” he wrote.

Transferring production to The Sun, he said, will enable The Times to be produced in six sections instead of four, to print more pages and to have more color and better inserting.

Amberg said The Times will also outsource its commercial printing to an as-yet-unidentified printing site. That shift will take place Oct. 1, he said.

Amberg didn’t specify how many production employees will lose their jobs once the shift takes place. Prepress will continue to be performed through The Times’ editorial department, he said.

The Times just recently upgraded its production workflow, adding PuzzleFlow software from supplier ACCHSH (see Newspapers & Technology, July 2008).