The first edition of the newspaper, then known as The Alpena Evening News, was printed on August 1, 1899. While the printing press has changed over the past century, Production Manager Ryan Quintel says the job hasn’t changed.

“When the quality is there, when we’ve done a good job and everyone has their papers, we’re done,” Quintel said.

He joined the printing team 20 years ago and worked his way up to the manager position. His dad, Gary, helps out in The News’ mailroom.

Quintel says he loves the work his team accomplishes.

News Photo by Blace Carpenter The front page of The Alpena News sits on the printing press on Thursday night.

“Knowing that I’ve been able to reproduce the newspaper for the local city that I’ve grown up around has been my favorite thing,” he said.

Around 8 p.m. every day, Quintel starts up the press, which sounds like a train moving through the building. Wheels of paper turn as they are fed into the four presses filled with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink.

The newspapers are filed one by one onto a conveyor belt by the press, where mailroom workers stack and shelf them. Mailroom Manager Zack Reynolds says he started because his family helped create The News’ daily paper.

“My grandpa used to do this back in the day,” Reynolds said. “He used to be one of the mail carriers back in the day, so it’s kind of run in the family.”

The News is one of the few Michigan papers that still print in-house, with many publications across the country starting to outsource their printing to save on costs.

News Photo by Blace Carpenter The Alpena News Production Manager Ryan Quintel inspects one of the ink presses during its run on Thursday night.

Reynolds says he has seen the decline in the paper’s thickness and circulation over the years.

“The newer generation, they all go to their cell phone,” Reynolds said.

He said he hopes that younger generations learn more about their local papers.

“I think younger people need to see how (The News) is run,” Reynolds said. “I think it would open their minds up to it.”

On Saturdays, the workers get a night away from the press, but the team will be back Sunday night for the 126-year-old tradition of printing tomorrow’s news.

News Photo by Blace Carpenter The Alpena News mailroom workers Gary Quintel, right, and Zack Reynolds organize papers as they come off the press on Thursday night.

Blace Carpenter can be reached at bcarpenter@thealpenanews.com. This story was produced by the Michigan News Group Internship Program, a collaboration between WCMU Public Media and local newspapers in central and northern Michigan. The program’s mission is to train the next generation of journalists and combat the rise of rural news deserts.

News Photo by Blace Carpenter The Alpena News mailroom worker Bill Emanuel looks at the quality of the insert pages that go inside the newspaper.

News Photo by Blace Carpenter Rolls of newspaper speed through The Alpena News’ printing press on Thursday night.