Its name may be emblazoned on the front of the building, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch newsroom's once bustling presence has all but evaporated.
Years worth of budget cuts, ownership changes and a precipitous circulation decline has meant the local paper's former headquarters in the heart of downtown Richmond, Virginia, now serves as an empty reminder of a role the Times-Dispatch once served across the city's media and real estate landscapes.
The newsroom's stripped-down operations have most recently been hit by another set of layoffs as owner Lee Enterprises, an Iowa-based newspaper chain, last month cut another five roles from the Times-Dispatch's metro staff. The paper lists a staff of just 30 on its website these days and it recently announced plans to cut its print publication down from seven days a week to six.
The reduced publication schedule was made "in response to changing dynamics in our industry — including shifts in advertising, rising newsprint costs, and fluctuations in the job market," Executive Editor Encarnacion Pyle wrote in a recent letter to subscribers. "While this is obviously a change, what remains constant is our commitment to you. Your stories have always lived here and been at the heart of what we do, and that will never change."
Yet as far as the paper's physical presence goes, change it has.
The Times-Dispatch's struggles echo those rippling across the national media industry as independent newsrooms struggle to solve a difficult financial equation. The collapse of advertising revenue, shifting reader habits and the skyrocketing costs of publishing and distributing physical papers each day has led to the gradual contraction of outlets across the country.
Nearly 40% of the more than 8,890 newspapers that existed in the United States 20 years ago have since shuttered, according to a new report from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Half of the 136 newspaper closures over the past 14 months have been from independent, for-profit newspaper chains that own five or fewer for-profit papers. And today, about 50 million people across the country now have no or limited access to local news.
That downfall has been perilous for the media industry, but less known has been its impact on local real estate markets.
As newsrooms such as the Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Kansas City Star, Philadelphia Inquirer and Miami Herald have slashed headcount and coverage investments, owners — many of which include large hedge funds and private-equity firms — have picked their operations apart.
That has often meant selling off newspapers' iconic office towers that, while they still showcase their names and remain skyline fixtures, have been all but drained of their namesake tenants.
In Virginia, the recent Times-Dispatch cuts are a "tough blow for Richmond and part of an ongoing tragedy across the country," U.S. Sen. Mark Warner wrote in a recent social media post. "Local press does invaluable work holding power to account and folks informed."
Representatives for neither the Times-Dispatch nor Lee Enterprises responded to CoStar News' requests for comment.
Downhill slope
The Richmond paper's former hub at 300 Franklin St. used to be a bustling epicenter for the city's downtown core.
The 160,000-square-foot building once housed hundreds of reporters, columnists, editors, copy desk roles and salespersons that served as the foundation for a paper with roots dating back to the early 19th century.
Yet the bruises started to form in the early 1990s when circulation counts and advertising revenue began to decline. By the early 2000s, weekday circulation had dropped by about 20%, leading to a 2009 decision to cut 90 positions, including nearly 30 newsroom roles.
The Times-Dispatch was among more than 60 other papers Berkshire Hathaway acquired in 2012 for $142 million. After the purchase, Berkshire Hathaway sold off the Times-Dispatch building for $14.5 million before selling the newspaper operation, along with other papers, to Lee Enterprises in 2019.
When the building was sold, about 140 of the paper's 320-person workforce were based in the downtown property. The workforce there has steadily dwindled since Lee Enterprises took over.
As Lee aggressively cut costs and shifted remaining personnel to the paper's production facility in Hanover County, the Times-Dispatch's footprint in the Franklin Street building was cut down to about 10,000 square feet. At about the same time, the paper's circulation continued to drop, falling to about 37,000 print subscribers in 2022, or nearly 50,000 less than what was reported the decade prior, based on media accounts.
By August of last year, the Times-Dispatch decided to vacate the building after opting against renewing its lease.
“We will be moving out of our current office location at the end of April,” in 2025, Times-Dispatch President Kelly Till told employees in a memo about the decision. “Since we are still in the planning phase, more details about the move and our new location will be provided once it becomes available.”
As the paper's physical presence dwindled, the Virginia Department of Social Services stepped up to backfill its former space, taking over the entirety of the downtown building earlier this summer.
Missing populations
The Times-Dispatch's shrinking real estate role is hardly unique.
As papers across the country sold off their namesake towers and properties, many shifted to a remote or semi-remote newsroom environments that no longer necessitated physical space. The Miami Herald, for example, moved from its downtown headquarters in 2013 to space in suburban Doral, Florida, that it sold last year for about $26 million. A majority of the paper's reporters now work from home.
The shift to remote work accelerated during the pandemic, part of a broader trend that left large cities scrambling to compensate for a sudden drop in foot traffic, tax revenue and demand for physical office space. Downtown areas have been particularly hard hit, resulting in office vacancy rates setting new historic highs and some local officials left to figure out how to address the chasm between pre- and post-pandemic activity levels.
The number of people working remotely has leveled off since late 2022, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While some of the nation's largest companies such as Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase have called employees back to a full five-day workweek, the national vacancy rate remains stuck above 14%, according to CoStar data. What's more, the amount of space tenants are leasing is still far below pre-2020 averages, compounding challenges for landlords and local officials looking for new sources of demand.
At many newspapers, in-office headcounts have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. In some cases, cities are stepping up on their own to fill the former office space.
The City of Denver last year approved an $88.5 million plan to acquire the downtown Denver Post building with plans to repopulate it with local municipal and judicial officials.
The West Colfax Avenue property had long served as the headquarters for the local media outlet up until hedge fund Alden Global Capital acquired it in 2010 and began picking apart its pieces. The newsroom was gutted through a series of layoffs, early-retirement packages, voluntary-separation buyouts and attrition, and in 2020 the last of parent company MediaNews Group’s employees moved to offices at the paper’s Adams County printing facility.
While the paper is still on the hook for a deal to lease some space in the building, it is now trying to buy out its long-term deal and has accrued more than $2 million worth of back rent. That figure includes three $650,000-a-month rent payments that have not been paid since August, plus tens of thousands of dollars in late fees, according to city documents made public this week.
“We stopped occupying this space while the building was under private ownership long before the city purchased it, so there was never any impression we would be using the space when the city made the decision to purchase the building,” Marshall Anstandig, general counsel for The Post’s parent company, said in a statement to CoStar News.
City officials disagree, especially given its own worrisome financial outlook in which it faces an estimated revenue shortfall of $200 million in 2026. A spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston said the city is working with The Post to resolve the issue, adding that officials “intend to recover every penny.”
Landmark status
Among other iconic newspaper buildings, or more accurately former newspaper buildings, private developers have taken the reigns but have largely chosen to preserve their investments' storied history.
The Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, which had served as the newspaper's landmark headquarters, was sold in 2016 to real estate firms CIM Group and Golub & Co. for about $240 million. The joint venture has since converted the office portion of the 36-story building into residential condominiums and earlier this year listed the ground-floor retail for sale. North American Real Estate then closed on a deal for the 47,000-square-foot block several months later.
All the while, the Chicago Tribune sign remained fixed on the building's exterior despite the paper's absence for more than seven years.
The Philadelphia Inquirer building in Center City was sold to a local investment firm in 2011 months before the paper, which had been based in the 400 North Broad St. property for almost a century, moved out. The building then went through an extensive $250 million overhaul and now serves as the Philadelphia Police Department’s new headquarters. The property, listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, still includes its “The Philadelphia Inquirer Building” plaque just off the main entrance to the ground-floor lobby.
While the Richmond Times-Dispatch has fallen to a similar fate, economic development officials say the city holistically is in far better shape — both in terms of its real estate as well as burgeoning media scene.
"As many markets across the country struggle with their downtown and central business districts, Richmond has a unique story to tell," Asif Bhavnagri, the vice president of business investment for the city's Department of Economic Development, told CoStar News. A handful of Fortune 500 companies have established roots in the area, he added, and Richmond's foundation of family-owned restaurants, galleries and entrepreneurs have largely been able to move beyond the impacts of the pandemic.
And "as traditional print media shift their physical footprint from being anchor tenants to more agile business models," Bhavnagri said other digital media outlets such as The Richmonder, which operates as a non-profit, and Virginia Business have stepped up in attempts to plug any holes in local news.
Virginia Public Media, which provides news and cultural programing across television, radio and digital channels, is even building its new headquarters at the heart of downtown Richmond.
Once completed in early 2026, the new five-story, 54,000-square-foot building is to include news and broadcast studios, podcast and music recording studios, administrative spaces, and a street-level community studio and event space.
