St. Louis Post-Dispatch plans to move to new digs

ST. LOUIS -- The parent company of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Tuesday it is looking for a new home for the newspaper after 56 years in a six-story building downtown.

Lee Enterprises -- the newspaper's owner since 2005 -- announced its plans to sell the building at 900 N. Tucker Blvd. that was completed in 1931 and has been the newspaper's base since 1959. That building has been the Post-Dispatch's sixth headquarters in its 137-year history.

Lee said Hilliker Corp. will market the property, and a listing price hasn't yet been provided. Hilliker's president, Meade Summers, said in a statement the building could remain office space or be repositioned for residential use.

Other major U.S. metropolitan newspapers, including Minneapolis' Star Tribune and the Philadelphia Inquirer, have relinquished large headquarters buildings that were built for an earlier age.

Ray Farris, the Post-Dispatch's president and publisher, said the newspaper would like to stay in downtown and is seeking a modern site as it expands its digital platform.

"We are a 21st-century media company operating in a mid-20th-century building," Farris said in a statement. "As we explore possible locations, nothing will change for our readers."

The Post-Dispatch's printing, inserting and distribution operations since 2008 have been done at a publishing center in Maryland Heights, a St. Louis suburb.