Press-Telegram operations will be consolidated onto the 1st floor of the downtown Long Beach ARCO Tower Building by July 1 and the newspaper plans to vacate the building entirely by the end of 2009, according to P-T General Manager Joe Brenneman.
Brenneman told employees Thursday that the company has hired an agent to look for property and the hope is to keep the paper in Long Beach, preferably downtown.
In July 2006 the P-T's parent company, Denver-based MediaNews Group, sold the more than 100-year-old P-T building at 6th and Pine Avenue for roughly $20 million and signed a 15-year lease for four floors of the ARCO Tower Building. According to MediaNews Group's past financial reports, $16.7 million of the sale of the P-T building was funneled back to Denver as profit directed toward dividends to the privately-held company's small group of shareholders.
MediaNews financial documents reveal a likely reason for the end-of-the-year deadline to vacate the ARCO Tower Building space. Under the terms of the original lease for the space, the minimum annual cost of the lease jumps from $800,000 a year to $900,000 a year on Jan. 1, 2010.
Currently, the main P-T operations, including the newsroom, are operated out of the ARCO Tower Building's 14th floor, with smaller ancillary operations located on portions of the 4th and 1st floors. P-T management plans to consolidate all operations, including the newsroom, to the 1st floor, with 4th floor operations remaining in place. Brenneman acknowledged that the much smaller 1st floor space is untenable for all the paper's operations in the long run.
When questioned by newsroom employees on the possibility of remaining in their current 14th floor location until the planned full move out of the building, company officials replied that this was not an option.
The P-T subleased the 12th floor more than a year ago and plans to sublease the 14th floor once the consolidation to the lower floors is complete.
Friday, June 12, 2009
On the move
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17 comments:
So that's why they didn't want people hanging stuff on the walls...they're hoping to get their deposit back :]
I believe the original Press-Telegram building was built in the 1920s and is not over a hundred years old
So the old building is sold and a many floors are leased at ARCO Towers and now the PT is moving again?
Who the hell is running this place?
Dean Singleton is the Josef Fritzl of newspapers.
They won't get a deposit back. I've spelled way too much coffee on that carpet.
In the long run I bet they could fit the entire operation on the first floor. Its not like layoffs are going to end and MNG will start hiring again.
Yeah, some guys need to step down from writing like that ancient Doug Krikorian and his 80K a year salary.
Way to go Joe, the PT won't get its $500 deposit back.
Septuagenarian Leaders who think twittering is for the birds.
Seriously, Doug Krikorian makes 80 grand a year?
Say it ain't so.
Why are you so fixated on his salary? He better be making 80 grand a year after 40 years in the biz, he should be making 90. What is your point? Do want him to drop down to $40,000 cuz he sucks? Should we all take pay cuts for each bad story, photo and or design? If so then the PT employees should be making a little over minimum wage.
Oh wait they do.
Seriously you don't still think that MediaNews actually would give you a merit raise for doing a good job do you? Don't you know that MediaNews management is rewarded for not! giving you a merit raise.
This is probably not hard for you but focus yourself, your work and or a new job.
Doug does suck and is out of touch with what is going at the PT and with its readers.
He should be either let go or take a cut in pay and use all that dough to hire more copy editors at the PT because lately there have been MANY mistakes in the issues.
I don't think Doug K is even worth 40K a year.
Maybe 40 bucks a week... maybe.
Send it all the copy to India and get lets more interns to do the work.
I agree.
The copy editing is spotty and the stories in the news and sports sections at the PT have been subpar.
Are interns writing the articles?
Just FYI: The credit union folks say they're scheduled to be out of the ARCO Towers by July 10th.
Ok Yall' get your money out of the credit union before they get out of the ARCO towers. Is there room at the credit union for the PT to move in with it?
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