Five years ago GXpress created the image of Fairfax production chief Bob Lockley driving the "little engine that could", along with chief executive Greg Hywood, as they tackled the closure of its two largest print plants.
But now perhaps we should have Lockley hooning into the sunset astride a jetski or behind the wheel of his 1965 Ford Mustang.
A replacement has not been yet named, but his retirement from the group director for print and distribution role at the end of this month has prompted concerns about the amount of knowledge leaving the industry.
Direct reports in the meantime go to Allen Williams, to whose responsibilities as managing director of publishing transition have just been added managing Australian Community Media staff following the resignation of ACM director John Angilley.
As it is, Lockley, who is 68, looks back on an "absolutely wonderful" 33 years with Rural and Fairfax, and 51 in the industry - ten since Fairfax's 2007 merger with Rural Press - and forward to a busy retirement with family including five grandchildren, aged from two to 19 years, a new holiday home on Lake Macquarie, and the "boys' toys" we mentioned above.
"I might even take up surfing," he says.
Retirement is not the word he chooses. Instead, "it's the next phase, era, chapter, whatever you like", with plans to continue his involvement with industry organisations and the opportunity to "give back a bit".
On the agenda is the 30th anniversary conference of the Single Width Users' Group (SWUG) of which he is president, likely to be next March or April, but with details and location still to arrange. "After that we may want to look at different formats, and the possibility of doing things with New Zealand SWUG," he says.
As the role and format of newspaper print sites changes around the world, he says SWUG is still needed with its continued focus not least on maintenance and safety.
He is also involved with Sydney Press Gang, the Australian Catalogue Association, and the Environment Advisory Group, now part of NewsMediaWorks.
Of the career which began as a compositor at Cumberland Newspapers in Parramatta - where he spent 18 years before moving to Rural Press as production manager - the crowning achievements may be those at Fairfax, but they are built on the foundations of 33 years in the industry.
The $42 million reorganisation of Fairfax's metro print production which saw the closure of the group's Tullamarine (Melbourne) and Chullora (Sydney) has been "instrumental in setting the publishing business on the road to a sustainable future", as Hywood put it in a note to staff.
The careful spend - which included $21 million in North Richmond, $17.5 million in Ballarat, and a smaller project in Canberra - not only delivered a swift ROI, but has also positioned Fairfax as Australia's third-largest heatset printer, after the newly-merged PMP and Ive Group businesses.
With heatset in North Richmond and Ballarat, and UV in North Richmond and Canberra, and of course, coldset, "we're getting a lot of work in what is still a stable catalogue market," he says.
Rural Press was one of the first newspaper sites into heatset when, under Lockley's leadership, it commissioned a cleverly-configured manroland Uniset line with a combination of horizontal and vertical units - delivering the best of both processes - which is still central to production.
New press installations in Ormiston (Queensland) and Christchurch (NZ), and upgrades in Petone (NZ) - to which a press from Tullamarine was relocated - and throughout regional Australia have contributed not only production efficiency, but the colour capacity which has helped keep Fairfax papers bright and attractive to readers and advertisers.
There have been challenges and the succession of closures needed to adjust capacity to the present realities of print publishing, but Lockley says he has "enjoyed being in all of it", notably, "the opportunity to bring forward our people and grow from within".
We hope there's more to enjoy yet.
Peter Coleman
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