Republican, Standard~Speaker buildings listed for sale
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL FILE - The Pottsville Republican-Herald offices on Mahantango Street in Pottsville.
POTTSVILLE – The downtown offices of the daily papers here and in Pottsville are up for sale as MediaNews Group continues its notorious tradition of deep cuts.
This comes just over two months after the Denver-based company, owned by the Alden Global Capital investment firm, purchased the Republican-Herald, Standard~Speaker, and its sister publications in the Times Shamrock chain.
The Republican-Herald‘s downtown Pottsville headquarters on Mahantango Street went up for sale on Oct. 26 and is listed for $450,000 as of Friday morning.
Multiple attached buildings and a 48-spot private parking lot are included in the sale and “most areas have updated office space, central air and heat” according to the listing with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
“There are multiple options with the buildings, including office, rental, and possible areas for apartments use or total conversion into apartments,” the listing says.
The offices were built for the newspaper in the late 1800s and had previously been home to the paper’s entire operations, including the printing press. Signage had never been updated to reflect the merger with the Shenandoah Evening Herald.
In Hazleton, the Standard~Speaker‘s offices on Wyoming Street were listed this week for significantly more.
Lewith & Freeman has the 15,000 square-foot three-story office building on a quarter-acre of land listed for $840,000.
“Great opportunity to own office space or convert this 3-Story property to mixed use with residential units,” the listing says. About 6,000 square foot of industrial space are also included.
The Citizens’ Voice building in Wilkes-Barre was also listed for sale last week for $1.1 Million.
Within a few weeks of the sale, the Republican-Herald ended walk-in service and the Standard~Speaker did the same in early October.
This is not the first time MediaNews Group has put newspaper offices up for sale within a few months of purchase.
When the company purchased the Reading Eagle in May of 2019, their downtown Reading headquarters were listed for sale by October.
The company has also closed and/or sold the headquarters of other publications, such as the Pottstown Mercury and the Kutztown Patriot, instructing employees to either work from home or from a printing plant nowhere near their paper’s coverage area.
While they claim it is an industry trend, most print newspapers outside of the MediaNews Group chain continue to maintain physical offices, including the Easton Express-Times, Shamokin News-Item, and the Valley View Citizen-Standard.
MediaNews Group has already slashed jobs at all four papers in the Times Shamrock chain.
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