HarperCollins Publishers will close its warehouse and distribution operation in Throop next summer and put close to 200 people out of work.
“The industry is changing,” said Erin Crum, spokeswoman for HarperCollins, a book publisher based in New York. “It just makes sense for us to go this route as we shift to a more digital industry.”
Ms. Crum would not disclose how many people will be laid off when the warehouse at the Keystone Industrial Park closes.
However, Craig Pawlik, principal officer of Teamsters Local 229 in Scranton, said 192 people will be furloughed. The union represents maintenance and warehouse workers at the facility.
“They are stunned,” Mr. Pawlik said. “Their last day in Dunmore will be sometime in September 2013.”
About 230 people work in an adjoining office at the HarperCollins’ complex, including information technology, accounting, credit and collection and customer-service operations, said Austin Burke, president of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. None of the office workers will be affected by the warehouse closing, Ms. Crum said.
HarperCollins also reported it will close a warehouse in Nashville, exit the distribution field and hand off its warehousing and distribution functions to RR Donnelly, a Chicago-based printer. Donnelly prints most of HarperCollins’s books. The move will save money and streamline distribution operations, according to HarperCollins.
The warehouse’s demise illustrates the impact of e-reading devices, such as Kindle, on the publishing field.
Print book sales dropped by more than 9 percent in 2011 from the preceding year, according to the Nielsen Co., a New York media and information concern. In August, a publishing industry survey showed paperback book sales had decreased by 14 percent since 2008.
“The economy is constantly evolving,” Mr. Burke said. “Nationally, we see bookstores closing. We see publishers merging and we see logistics being consolidated and outsourced.”
Unionized workers at the warehouse earn between $19.91 and $20.87 an hour, plus benefits, Mr. Pawlik said.
“Those are family-sustaining jobs,” he said. “They are non-existent in this area at this point.”
The chamber developed the Throop site for Harper & Row in 1964, Mr. Burke said. In 1985, Harper & Row added an $8 million, 125,000-square-foot addition to its 325,000-square-foot warehouse.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch acquired Harper & Row for $300 million in 1986 and merged it in 1987 with a British publisher, William Collins & Sons. HarperCollins is a subsidiary of News Corp., a New York-based media and entertainment conglomerate.
“This is a real hardship for those warehouse workers,” Mr. Burke said. “They are excellent warehousing jobs. They have been a real foundation stone of our logistics economy here.”
The 30-acre property housing HarperCollins’ operations was acquired by a Chicago corporation for $11.7 million in 2007, according to Lackawanna County property records.
Contact the writer: jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com