Description
The Times' editorial, business and administrative departments as well as most pre-press operations are located at a six-building complex in downtown Los Angeles encompassing an entire city block.

The Times offers tours of the Editorial operation, and the state-of-the-art Olympic plant in Los Angeles.

In 1999, the presses were retrofitted to accommodate narrower, 50-inch-wide newsprint. This change reduces the amount of newsprint The Times uses while providing readers with an easy-to-handle page size.

The Olympic Plant

Named after the nearby Olympic Blvd., the Olympic Plant was built at a cost of $230 million and began operating in June 1990.

Each of the Olympic plant's six 12-unit Goss Colorliner presses is capable of printing a 96-page newspaper - with 36 pages of full color and four pages of spot color - at speeds of up to 70,000 newspapers per hour.

The 55,700-square-foot pressroom is 530 feet long - nearly twice the length of a regulation football field. It is three stories high - from the reel room, where newsprint is loaded onto the presses, to the operating and catwalk levels. The plant also includes a newsprint storage area with a 30,000-ton newsprint capacity.

Hours
Tours are given Monday Through Friday, usually at 11 and 1:30, though times may vary. Tours are by reservation at least a week in advance. Call 213-237-5757 for tour details and to make a reservation.

Tours average an hour.

Children must be 8 years of age or older to take the tour. Limited photography at Editorial, open (still) photography at printing. No video or taping of the tours.