Cash-strapped News & Observer to sell Chapel Hill office

Just days after closing its Durham bureau and moving 10 staffers into its Chapel Hill office, the News & Observer has announced the building which houses the Chapel Hill office is for sale. IndyWeek.com:

The Chapel Hill building that now houses the Durham and Orange county bureaus of The News & Observer is for sale.

"I think if we got the right price, we'd be interested in talking with somebody," John Drescher, The N&O's executive editor, said in an interview.

McClatchy, the Sacramento-based newspaper company that owns The N&O, owns the building at 505 W. Franklin St. County records list its value at more than $2 million.

Money is tight for McClatchy these days: The company instituted a wage freeze earlier this month, as its ad revenues and stock price continue to drop. Evidently, that prime piece of Franklin Street real estate is too valuable an asset not to consider selling.

Ten staffers at The N&O's Durham bureau moved their offices to Chapel Hill after the company decided not to renew its lease at Peabody Place near downtown. In an Aug. 16 column, Durham News editor Rob Waters announced the shuttering.

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