Media company to close down print shop

| 24/01/2023 | 33 Comments
Picture from Compass Print website

(CNS): Compass Media, the parent company of the Cayman Compass and Compass Print, will close the print shop for good on 30 April with an undisclosed number of redundancies on the cards, according to a notice posted on its social media pages.

While the newspaper, now published just once per week, will still be printed here, the commercial printing service, which has been open for decades, is coming to an end due to rising costs, the company stated.

The notice said that a steep rise in operating costs, from paper to insurance, as well as ageing machinery was behind the closure.

Notice posted on social media (click to enlarge)

The company said that in the absence of any duty waivers on printing machinery or printing materials, it was very difficult to compete with services offered in the United States.

The news comes less than two years after Compass Media announced an expansion of its printing services and an investment in new digital equipment.


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Category: Business, Media

Comments (33)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    who cares

  2. Anonymous says:

    Legge as right (to sell when he did.)

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    • Anonymous says:

      Legge legged it after screwing the pooch on this one…. A “Legge”nd in his own lunchtime…

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  3. Anonymous says:

    A reduction in domestic misinformation and party-biased propaganda can only be a good thing. Let’s hope any savings aren’t redirected into foreign political meddle-bots. The funding for which should be added to the Penal Code, Part III, Offences Against Public Order §57 Seditious Intention. We don’t need to follow the rest of the world in pretending paid foreign media influencers aren’t deliberately interfering with free and fair elections.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Did the guy who bought the Compass ever do any due diligence on it first? So far they’ve stopped printing the paper 4 days a week, put up an online pay wall, now this….you wonder sometimes if people should just stick to their own lane…here in Cayman, everyone is an expert in everything aren’t they?! Until they do it…

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    • Anonymous says:

      Bergstrom should be paying us to read his pro-corruption and developer biased reporting that awaits behind that paywall. Hard pass on all of it.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Very sad for those being made redundant, I hope they are able to find alternative work soon.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    Dart should buy it and turn the place into a museum so young ppl can see how tings used to be

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  7. Anonymous says:

    The Friday Compass is just a rehash of some of the online stories from earlier in the week. The second half is just obligatory work permit job adds.

    But this is the case everywhere. Printed newspapers and phone booths.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Whats a phone booth?

    • Anonymous says:

      those ads aren’t obligatory. you can post ad for free on the worc site and get your permit just fine when no one applies. stopped wasting time and money with compass classifieds back in 2018

  8. Anonymous says:

    There is a demand for printing services here. The articles isn’t saying that the compass is going to stop printing the newspaper, it is saying that a locally owned business cannot compete with overseas providers of the printing services that people and companies in Cayman demand. So Compass closing this service isn’t going to reduce the paper, it just means the paper will be printed in the states and imported as final product. The real concerns here are 1. Prices are rising and local companies may find it increasingly difficult to compete with overseas providers, which has a direct impact on our economy because it means the money is going overseas instead of staying here. 2. The article references duty waivers on printing supplies and equipment not being offered by Government. I don’t know if this is because waivers weren’t requested or if Government decided it was in the country’s best interest to refuse to introduce these types of waivers. Some economic analysis on the duty value vs the impact to the economy of losing the service (including the redundancies of staff) would reveal whether duty waivers would have been a better option than letting the business die (of course I’m also taking the compass at its word that the experience described is factual). This isn’t a ‘their’ problem. It isn’t a rich Caymanian or rich other problem.. it’s a dent to the economy which might be a sign of worse to come (hopefully not).

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    • Anonymous says:

      @9:15:
      It is a sign of shifting paradigms brought on by an ever smaller and inter-connected, digitally augmented world.

      The article made me wonder why they could not compete with their overseas competition and are closing. Since Miami is close and orders can make it to Cayman Airways quickly, I did an investigation into their Miami competition. I got what I feel is my answer.
      Please allow me to present The Rest of the Story…

      For starters, I visited the Compass Media Print Shop’s web site.
      I was greeted with a slick-looking homepage that was very high on self-aggrandisement, but of little interest or value to me if I as a busy business owner wanted to quickly find out the approximate cost and time-frame related to getting flyers, cards, and a banners printed for a trade show. To do so I would have to fill out an online form, describe what I wanted in the text box, divulge all my contact information, and then wait for them to call me. In other words, drudgery I would have to endure if I were inquiring in the late 1990’s. Seriously?? Nah. Must be a better way…

      Then…
      I Googled “miami printers online”. In less time than it wold have taken me to fill out Compass Media’s online get-a-quote form, I came across one homepage with little self-aggrandising, but lots and lots of product. When I clicked in, I was greeted with full colour pictures of banners, cards, fliers, stickers, and more. Below each photo was the price. And there was page after page of product. All priced and with a shopping cart button to add it to my order. And on the pages it gave a (usually very short) delivery times. I could upload my own designs, get a proof emailed to me, and if all is good get next-day delivery. Or I could opt for them to assist in the design.

      Other sites similarly had examples with descriptions, prices, design upload or assistance options. A couple of sites even had very good online applications where a customer can design online their own items from cards, to banners, boards, fliers, etc…and even logo apparel!

      Several sites had a chat button where you could instantly connect with assistance.

      Just a hint to Cayman entrepreneurs: If overseas businesses might be your competition, make sure you have a really great website and make sure that your website has relevant content that is easy for customers to access. Don’t be like Compass Media and up front say how very wonderful your and your products and services are, but then put up every barrier imaginable to a customer wanting to get a quote or quickly place an order.

      In this instant gratification, internet-connected, and very impatient world, customers for common items and things like printing services and want to know: what…how much…and when, and they want to know it instantly and with as little fuss as possible.

      Bottom line: My next business printing order will not entail me filling out an onerous online form and then have to wait for lord-only-knows how long for a quote on common printed items. Meaning, sadly, it will not be coming from Compass Media printing.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Actually, no, the release says they’ll still print the newspaper and their Compass Media magazines there, they just aren’t providing any other commercial printing services (fliers, business cards, etc.)

  9. Anonymous says:

    Advertising as well as putting essentially all output behind a paywall. Shut the whole thing down. It wont be missed.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    Compass is slowly dying ever since that new buyer took it over

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Two sides to everything. Time and tech has claimed printed media worldwide.

    But only shallow people would make derogatory comments in favour of modern media without recognizing the impact and venerability of newspapers and print media in the world’s history.

    Cayman Compass/Caymanian Compass/Caymanian Weekly (from whence some of the equipment, perhaps) we are grateful for being the printed icon you’ve been to the Caymanian public for almost 60 years!

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Good, destroying the environment

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  13. _||) says:

    About time. Printed material is so 1900s and creates a literal ton of waste.. Newspaper has been my car liner for about a decade now.

    CNS rightly deserves their spot as a top news outlet for innovating digitally from donkey years ago.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Tell that to ya papa, who doesn’t have a phone or computer.

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      • Anonymous says:

        When calculators were invented we ditched manual calculations on paper too

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        • Anonymous says:

          And dumbed it down…. So quick to forget how disasters like Ivan force us to skills you are proud not to have… time for another bitch slap of reality….

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        • Anonymous says:

          Yes, and when the battery dies or the sun isn’t shining on the solar panel, you don’t know how to long divide to save your life.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Meh.

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