The owner of The Daily Hampshire Gazette is putting its 45,000-square-foot headquarters in Northampton, Massachusetts, up for sale. But it plans to keep the paper based in the city.
The building has a price tag of more than $4 million.
The Gazette's owner, Newspapers of New England, recently closed down the press at the facility. Twenty-nine employees — nine full time and 20 part time — lost their jobs as a result, in what was the latest round of layoffs at the company's western Massachusetts operations.
The company also owns The Greenfield Recorder, Valley Advocate and the Athol Daily News.
All of the publications had been printed in Northampton, but that task has been outsourced, and the papers are now printed in Auburn.
"Selling the property, identifying news space based on our actual needs, is going to be a significant cost savings for us, and will allow us to reinvest in what we we've stated as our core mission, which is news-gathering," said Michael Moses, publisher of The Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Bera Dunau is unit council chair for the Pioneer Valley News Guild, which represents many of the 50 workers at the Gazette. He said he hopes proceeds from the sale will allow for the return of six staffers laid off because of the pandemic.
"We hope the focus on journalism the company recently promised means it plans to make monetary investments in its workers — the people who actually make the newspaper," Dunau said.
The building sits on more than three acres of land less than a mile from downtown Northampton.