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Weekly bids farewell to home of 49 years with special edition

A weekly newspaper bade farewell to its old office of nearly 50 years with a special edition sharing memories of its time there.

The Fife Free Press has left its Kirk Wynd base, in Kirkcaldy, for a new home just a few hundred yards away at Carlyle House.

The Johnston Press-owned title splashed on the move in last week’s edition to mark its departure from the building after 49 years.

In a piece marking the move, editor Allan Crow paid tribute to journalists who has worked there down the years.

FFP office

He wrote: “It’s the right move, made at the right time, and for the right reasons, but leaving here will still be a wrench. This building has been part of so many lives for so many years; a home to generations of wonderful people.”

This week, the Free Press has also changed printing centres, switching from Lanarkshire to Dundee.

Added Allan: “The days of hanging round the press waiting to grab an early copy of the FFP belong to a different era. Changes have also seen the centralisation, or closure, of many departments.

“Advertising has moved across the Forth and, perhaps most painful of all, our reception closed, severing a link between the public and the Press that, in my view, was far more important than any revenue it generated. It also underlined that 23 Kirk Wynd always was about the people who worked here.

“Whoever moved in, out, up, or on, this place had the most special of newsrooms, and was the best place to work whether that was advertising, or admin, production or photography. October would have marked 50 years here. Instead it marks the end of one era, and the beginning of a new one.

“We’ll miss this place and all its memories. This final edition produced out of Kirk Wynd, is dedicated to them all. Good friends, great colleagues. Now we begin a new chapter in the history of the Press.”