Standard Gravure

Last updated
Standard Gravure
IndustryPrinting
Founded1922
Founder Robert Worth Bingham
Defunct1992
Headquarters Louisville, Kentucky

Standard Gravure was a Louisville, Kentucky rotogravure printing company founded in 1922 by Robert Worth Bingham and owned by the Bingham family. For decades, it printed the weekly The Courier-Journal [1] as well as rotogravure sections for other newspapers as well as Parade .[ citation needed ]

By the 1980s, a shrinking print market had reduced revenues, and an employee wage freeze was instituted by then President William E. Bockmon in 1982.[ citation needed ]

In 1986, Bingham family patriarch Barry Bingham Sr. announced the family would sell all their media holdings including Standard Gravure. [2] [3] The employees of Standard Gravure made a bid to buy the company,[ citation needed ] but it was sold instead to Michael Shea from Atlanta, Georgia for $22 million. [4] [5] In the same year, the family sold The Louisville Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times for $305 million to the Gannett Company. [4] [1] After the sale the employees learned that $11 million of their employee pension fund had been used to help finance Shea's purchase. [6] The company had 531 employees at two plants at the time of the sale.[ citation needed ]

On September 14, 1989, Standard Gravure came to national attention when Joseph T. Wesbecker, an employee on disability leave, entered the plant with several firearms and fired at employees for thirty minutes, injuring twelve and killing nine, including himself. [7] [8] [9]

Standard Gravure closed in February 1992, after two serious fires. [10] The building at 6th and Broadway and part of the Courier-Journal complex, was demolished and became a parking lot. [11]

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References

  1. 1 2 Peterson, Erica; Gregory, John (27 August 2018). "A Bingham Buys A Newspaper: The Life And Legacy Of Robert Worth Bingham". Louisville Public Media. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Jones, Alex S. (20 May 1986). "GANNETT GETS LOUISVILLE PAPERS FOR 300 MILLION". The New York Times . p. 1. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  3. ↑ Wines, Michael (1986-01-19). "The Binghams of Louisville : Family Tragedy and Feuds Bring Down Media Empire". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-02-26.
  4. 1 2 "Binghams Sell A TV Station". The New York Times. 2 June 1986. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  5. ↑ "Binghams Sell Another Unit". The New York Times . 27 May 1986. p. 5. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  6. ↑ Prozac backlash: overcoming the dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and other antidepressants with safe, effective alternatives, p. 179.
  7. ↑ "Bank shooting in Louisville brings memories of 1989 mass shooting at Standard Gravure". WDRB. 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  8. ↑ "One of America's first workplace shootings had an unlikely suspect: Prozac". Washington Post. 2023-04-16. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  9. ↑ "Standard Gravure remembered: Here are all the victims from the 1989 mass shooting". www.courier-journal.com. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  10. ↑ "Painful Parallels Between Mass Shootings at Navy Yard and Standard Gravure in Louisville". Louisville Public Media. 2013-09-19. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
  11. ↑ Kelly, Adrianne (2019-09-14). "This Day in History: 8 killed, 12 wounded in Standard Gravure shooting". WLKY. Retrieved 2025-01-22.
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