For instance, managers at one newspaper envision six automated palletizing systems. As the deck stacks up against existing downtown facilities, the oft-heard arguments favoring new construction become all the more alluring. It's hard to expand within landlocked downtown blocks. Traffic problems proliferate everywhere. As papers aggressively pursue suburban consumers, highways on urban peripheries ease distribution.
Downtowns often occupy flood plains.
Amid external logistics, internal problems surface. An existing layout might date to when mailrooms lacked importance and presses were shorter and stubbier. Functions like platemaking are located wherever they fit. Planners argue that the longer life span and efficiency gains of a new facility generally justify its expense. The challenges ahead, too murky to pin down, often prove the deciding factor in a decision to stay put.