LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s largest newspaper says its 74-year-old building in downtown Louisville is for sale.
The Courier Journal building, constructed in 1947 at 525 W. Broadway, was put on the market Friday with an asking price of $17 million, according to Aidan Cleghorn, a partner with commercial real estate broker BellCornerstone, which is handling the sale.
While the location will change, the newspaper is dedicated to maintaining a strong presence in Louisville, Executive Editor Mary Irby-Jones said. The newsroom will likely remain downtown in an office that’s designed better for today’s journalism, she said.
“We are committed to Louisville and Kentucky, and the sale of the building will not change how we cover our communities, region and state,” Irby-Jones said.
The newspaper’s printing and packaging facility closed in March and production operations were split between Gannett-owned newspapers in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Indianapolis, the Courier Journal reported.
The sale of a newspaper’s building can bring concerns about the “end of a newspaper,” but Cleghorn said that is not the case.
“In reality, these buildings are massive, (and) they’re extraordinarily expensive to maintain,” Cleghorn said.
The state’s second-largest newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, sold its building in downtown Lexington in 2017.
“By rightsizing and getting into a new space, it saves a lot of money” and puts The Courier Journal in a better place to cover fast-paced news, Cleghorn said.
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