With press runs of around 4,000, printing the Militant on a sheetfed press is more economical and efficient than on a web press, which the paper has been printed on since 1970. Press runs at that time shot up from around 10,000 in 1968 to 20,000 two years later. The communist movement at the time organized to raise the funds to purchase a web press, which is designed for long-running jobs. With much shorter press runs today, the sheetfed presses can meet the needs of the weekly Militant and monthly Perspectiva Mundial. The presses print on both sides of a page in one pass, meaning four pages of the paper can be completed in one color quite quickly.

For a week or so supporters of the two publications in New York and New Jersey are stepping forward to help fold and collate the paper. The shop is organizing to purchase folding equipment that will eliminate much of this labor-intensive work.

The first four pages of the Militant rolled off the presses Tuesday afternoon this week, marking a new schedule for the editorial production of the paper each week. Four additional pages are printed on Wednesday, and the remaining eight on Thursday.

Another first with this issue is the organization of the weekly mailing by all three branches of the Socialist Workers Party in New York on Friday before the Militant Labor Forums. For the past few months the mailing has been done by volunteers out of the Garment District branch headquarters on Thursday evenings.

The switch to Fridays will allow socialist workers and young socialists to join sales teams out on street corners and at plant gates on Thursday with the new issue. The mailing on Friday is being divided up so part of the job can be done by volunteers in the Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan branch headquarters as well. Socialists plan on integrating this as part of the evening’s activities with pre-forum dinners and the weekly forum series. All bundles to distributors and subscriptions will be sent out by 6:30 p.m. or so each week on Friday.

Volunteers are also organizing to make cars available to get boxes of the paper to the mailing locations, and bags of subscription copies to the Post Office. This will save thousands of dollars a year in charges previously paid to delivery services.

This new production schedule will necessitate a few changes in the times distributors and worker-correspondents send in articles and bundle request information each week. The Militant asks that distributors place bundle increases by 9:00 a.m. each Tuesday.

The deadline for Militant Labor Forum and other calendar announcements remains noon on Tuesday. For articles in the new issue of the Militant, worker-correspondents should send in their copy and sources by the end of the day on Friday at the latest, unless other arrangements are made with the editor. Information on how to send in articles, pictures, and bundle orders can be found at themilitant.com.  
 
 
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