The growing trend of outsourcing newspaper production was a far-off idea in 2002.

When the group that operates The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press announced plans for a major expansion to its printing plant that year, the editor and publisher of The News said it was to better "keep up with the changing needs of our present readers and meet the needs of new readers in the future."

Three years later and the Detroit Media Partnership had added 190,000 square feet and six new GEOMAN presses for $170 million.

Another three years later brought a different kind of news. The group announced in December 2008 it would scale back home delivery to three days a week and significantly reduce the amount of copies it prints in a week.

The 2002 comment by The News' Mark Silverman was followed in 2008 by Free Press publisher Dave Hunke, who said the digital push would allow the papers "to focus our resources on strengthening the content we provide readers instead of investing in paper, ink and fuel."

Not many papers are copying the Detroit strategy. Advance Publications did replicate the move in Michigan with the March announcements that three of its newspapers in the state would begin printing only three days a week and the Ann Arbor News would close in favor of an online news group that would print twice a week. Elsewhere, The Christian Science Monitor cut down from daily printing to weekly printing in April, but still produces content daily online.

Many more publications have instead opted to outsource printing. The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., is the latest victim. Publisher Michael Fisch announced Dec. 3 to employees at the paper's production plant that the Gannett newspaper would begin printing the product at Media Group Inc.'s Bergen Record in New Jersey as of the March 8 edition.

That closing also affects other publications. Westchester began printing another Gannett newspaper, The Poughkeepsie Journal, earlier in the year. Hearst Newspapers' The Hour in Norwalk, Conn., was also printed in Westchester. Both papers are expected to move to Rockaway, N.J.

In a memo to staff, Fisch said the move "will allow us to save operating expenses associated with the printing and packaging center, and allow us to avoid major capital investments going forward."

The closing will lead to the elimination of 166 full- and part-time jobs in production. Overall, Gannett has closed 13 printing plants in 2009, for a cut of at least 672 production employees.

Gannett, which owns the Detroit Free Press, but owned The Detroit News at the time of its press expansion, is not the only company cutting production jobs.

Since News Corp. bought Dow Jones in the summer of 2007, it has already closed, or announced the upcoming closure of eight plants. Most recently, the company said it will eliminate 35 jobs as it closes it's Sharon, Pa., plant that prints The Wall Street Journal and an edition of The New York Post.

McClatchy closed five printing plants in 2009 and Lee Enterprises closed three, according to a list compiled by the trade publication News & Tech.

MaineToday Media Inc. announced Tuesday it would shutter a plant in August and consolidate printing of three newspapers to a 19-year-old Flexographic press in South Portland.

That closing affected 39 full- or part-time employees, but nine accepted jobs at the new plant.

All were offered positions in South Portland. Nine accepted, and the others opted to leave the company.

Despite the consolidation push, Transcontinental recently made an announcement closer to Detroit's 2002 news. The Canadian publishing company invested more than $230 million into a four-story, 338,000-square foot facility in Fremont, Calif., that will print the San Francisco Chronicle.

The move brings a new facility, but the Chronicle eliminated 230 jobs by outsourcing the printing.

Transcontinental reached a 15-year, $1 billion contract with Hearst to print the Chronicle. The press allows for full color and glossy print.

Consolidation was as much of a buzz word in the newspaper world during 2009 as furlough or layoff. Gannett has already announced it will implement more furloughs in 2010.

More consolidation, and plant closings, are expected as well.