Tough time to sell a newspaper building

The story of how Belo is putting the ProJo's headquarters up for sale resurfaced last week. But as the AP reports (h/t Romo), this kind of thing could prove a tough deal for any number of newspaper companies:

At least half a dozen newspaper companies have said this year they plan to sell their buildings, some with the intention of leasing back space for their news operations. Others are moving to smaller offices to save money as staffs dwindle and the era of commanding downtown newspaper buildings appears near an end.

The newspapers could hardly have picked a worse time to put their buildings on the block, with the value of commercial real estate deals plummeting from just a year ago.

"Timing is everything," said Ross Moore, a director at the real estate services firm Colliers International. "If you tried to do a sale-leaseback 18 months ago the deal would have been done before the end of the day. Now, you've probably got your work cut out for you.

"The second issue is the newspapers themselves," he added. "It's pretty well known that they're going through a tough time." Which means buyers know they can hold out for a bargain.