Nov 17, 2017

On any given evening at The Baltimore Sun’s printing plant in Port Covington, tens of thousands of papers hum through the four-story tall press that dates to 1992.

: The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s Sun Park printing press in operation opened in 1992. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s Sun Park printing press in operation opened in 1992. The presses can print 40-60,000 copies per hour. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s state of the art printing press in Port Covington opened in 1992. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s state of the art printing press in Port Covington opened in 1992. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Conveyor belts carry the printed papers to the packaging area. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Thomas Samsel, a pressman at the Sun Park printing plant, prepares a roll of paper that each weigh one ton and are about 10 miles long. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Chris Bonner keeps a watchful eye on the robotic stacker in the packaging area. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Quinn Richardson gets a pallet of papers ready for Adolph Morgan who takes them to be shrink wrapped and then loaded onto trucks for delivery. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Mike Ball, a pressman in the printing plant, pulls a freshly printed paper off the conveyor for a quality control check. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Rockelle Miller in the packaging area sorting the preprinted ads for the holiday paper. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Edward Bowles uses a shrink wrap machine to wrap the newspapers before they are loaded onto trucks for delivery. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Bobby Helinski, a pressman at The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s Port Covington printing plant, loads a roll of paper into the ground level of the printing press. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The facility uses 26,000 gallons of black ink per year to print the paper. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Color ink rollers from the press that have been replaced after several million impressions. The facility uses 26,000 gallons of black ink per year to print the paper. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The reelroom houses the rolls of newsprint and the one ton rolls are moved by robotic units called, AGV’s. The AGV’s move the paper to and from the press. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The facility uses about 10,000 miles of newsprint per month and prints 75-80 different publications a week. The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s Sun Park printing press in operation opened in 1992. The presses can print 40-60,000 copies per hour. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The papers are constantly pulled off the press for a quality control check. The Baltimore Sun Media Group’s state of the art printing press in Port Covington opened in 1992. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: Mike Ball, a pressman, attaches the press plates before the paper is printed. The facility uses 26,000 gallons of black ink per year to print the paper. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

: The plant uses approximately 13,000 rolls of paper per year. (Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun)

The 60-acre facility produces millions of papers each week.

This time of year, the presses and mailroom staff are buzzing in preparation for the holidays. The Thanksgiving paper will be filled with pages of Black Friday ads from around 44 advertisers. One of the biggest editions of the year will weigh about three pounds and have a distribution of more than 220,000 copies. Early editions will be on sale at participating retailers on Wednesday, Nov. 22.

Inside The Baltimore Sun’s printing plant

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