For 35 years, Missourian pressman Tony Sargent watched the students change, the pages change and the technology change.
That came to an end with this edition. The Missourian’s press is aging, and a new press would cost almost $1 million. Starting Monday, Columbia’s morning newspaper will be printed by the Jefferson City News Tribune.
Sargent, 49, began working for the Missourian’s mailroom while he was a 14-year-old student at West Junior High School. Sargent thought his part-time job would only last until he graduated from high school. When he was offered a full-time position as a pressman, he accepted and never left.
“I really enjoy going other places like the doctor’s office and see people reading it. I think to myself ‘I did that,’” Sargent said. “I like the final product, putting out a good looking newspaper.”
Sargent said he would miss his fellow pressmen, Bruce Moore and Larry Clemens, the most. “We’ve turned into a family after all these years,” he said.