The new year began with a bang for Charlottesville’s daily newspaper. The Daily Progress reported on January 1 that Media General, the Richmond-based owner of the newspaper, is planning to put the Progress building, and the property on West Rio Road in Albemarle County, up for sale.
The Progress moved to the Rio Road facility after leaving its Market Street offices in downtown Charlottesville in 1983.
It was only in July that the local daily laid off 25 employees after it shut down its in-house printing operations. The 25-year-old printing machine needed an estimated $3 million in updates.
The paper immediately started rolling out of a Hanover County press, where the Richmond Times-Dispatch is printed.
The decision to sell was prompted by Media General’s review of its real estate assets and plans to use the money made from sales to pay debts.
In November, Harbinger Capital Partners, an activist hedge fund with seats on the Media General board, cut its stakes in the communications company due to a 5.8 percent revenue decrease in October led by declines in classified ad sales.
Say bye-bye: The most recent Albemarle County assessment, done on January 1, 2008, valued the land and The Daily Progress building on Rio Road at an estimated $4 million.