Fairfax Media is to close its Dubbo print centre, bringing to an end almost a century-and-a quarter of newspaper print tradition in the NSW country city.

Production at the plant attached to the Daily Liberal offices in Macquarie Street will end tomorrow night, with work switched to Fairfax sites in Tamworth and North Richmond, NSW, Albury/Wodonga and Canberra.

Twenty staff including casuals are affected by the closure. Regional general manager, print and distribution Michael Aubrey says one apprentice has taken up an offer of relocation, going to the Tamworth site. Among those leaving is print centre manager Charlie Fletcher, who has been with the company for 31 years.

"It's very sad, but the result of print volumes continuing to drop," he says. The change of publication schedules at other centres had also freed up capacity to take on the Dubbo workload.

Plant at the site includes a five-tower, two-folder Goss Community - upgraded in 2011 and again two years ago - Müller Martini Alphaliner inserting, Kodak CTP and other equipment. The site won the 2011 PANPA health and safety award following upgrades which improved guarding and removed many manual tasks.

Between 1949 - when the Liberal was bought by Leo and Pat Armati - and 1995, when their family sold out to Rural Press, Dubbo was the centre of a Macquarie Publications network which grew to 56 newspapers and magazines under John Armati. Rural Press merged into Fairfax in 2007.

Apart from newspapers - where the group was a technology innovator in print and systems - Dubbo was home to a substantial Macquarie heatset print operation, producing magazines, among them Women's Day, and catalogues. The commercial web business was acquired by Hannanprint parent IPMG in the early 1990s but closed in 2001 despite substantial investment.

With the closure, Fairfax will have 11 print sites in Australia and three in New Zealand.

Pictured: The recently-upgraded Community press, to which Enkel automatic pasters and safety equipment were part of a recent upgrade