Asheville Citizen Times to relocate from downtown building after 85 years; paper continues

ASHEVILLE - The city has that distinctive skyline, backlit by the Blue Ridge Mountains and dipped in the French Broad Valley: The rust-colored dome of City Hall sparkles in sunlight next to the old County Courthouse, the stately Jackson Building towers over Pack Square, not far from the former BB&T building — at 19 stories, the city's tallest “skyscraper.”

Just to the northwest of downtown, there’s the “wedding cake”-designed Grove Arcade. It sits directly across the street from the iconic Citizen-Times building at 14 O. Henry Ave. Erected in 1939 of concrete and glass block to house the morning Asheville Citizen and the afternoon Asheville Times newspapers, which later merged to form the Citizen Times.

But seasons, times and skylines change. The BB&T building is now the Hotel Arras, a new glass-walled County Courthouse slightly outshines its predecessor. And while a vinyl press, bar and café several years ago replaced a once lively – and sometimes rowdy – newsroom on the first floor, the Citizen Times has still continuously operated from the building for the past 85 years.

That chapter of Asheville’s history closes this month.

The Citizen Times newsroom will vacate the second floor of 14 O. Henry, which we have been renting after our parent company Gannett sold the building to local investors in 2018, once our lease expires March 31.

“Despite this move, the Citizen Times remains focused on covering Asheville and Buncombe County,” said Mark Russell, South Region editor and executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. “We will continue to put resources into local news coverage, and the exit from the newspaper’s longtime downtown building does not indicate a lessening of our zeal to cover the community.”

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As the Citizen Times executive editor, I can assure our readers that this paper will continue our mission to inform and empower people and to hold those in power accountable.

This newspaper was established in 1870 as a member of the Fourth Estate – that institution enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution, the one that serves as a pillar to a properly functioning democracy, one that calls out injustices, shines a spotlight on solutions, gives voice to the voiceless and works toward building stronger communities.

We will continue to bring our readers and subscribers impactful journalism through our print paper and online platforms and converse and interact with you all by phone, email and social media, as well as the best way — in person when we’re out and about, at City Council and school board meetings, community events and festivals or sitting for a chat at a coffee shop.

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“We are investing more in our people and technology, rather than real estate,” said Michael A. Anastasi, VP of Local News for Gannett. "That’s what’s most important – the people and products providing reliable, local and essential reporting.”

Memories bring back memories

This is admittedly far from a happy moment for the current Citizen Times staff and an especially sad one for me. I came from working at newspapers in Montana and Idaho and Arizona to Asheville in 2000, when the internet was still a toddler and social media not even an embryo.

I was a former National Park Service ranger with a master’s in journalism, so excited to blend my passions of writing and nature as the outdoors reporter in the beating heart of outdoor heaven, and how apropos on a street named after O. Henry!

It was a time when the printing press had already left the building but we were still bursting with journalistic activity and audacity — every floor was filled, from advertising to accounting, and the newsroom had so many departments, from features to photography, news and design, copy editing and opinion, and we had a working library complete with librarians. There were times when the newsroom was so full we had to move reporters and their desks into hallways.

It was an inspiring place to come to work with those old-school journalists, in a historic building with high ceilings and large, airy windows, the creation of architect Tony Lord, who spoke with the late Rob Neufeld, a longtime Citizen Times columnist, in 1990:

“That thing was conceived, designed, and built in about a year and a half. The newspaper people were down where Woolworth is now in an old building which had housed the YMCA, and the press was inside the pool, down in the swimming pool of the YMCA,” Neufeld recounted from a conversation with Lord in 1990, when the architect was 90. “The Citizen was down there. The Times had been over in the Jackson Building annex on Market Street. Then they got together and became the Citizen-Times.”

Lord also spoke of the building’s trademark glass block walls.

“That building was built before there was wide use of artificial light,” Lord said. “So, we wanted as much natural light as we could get, and glass block appeared to be a very useful sort of thing. You could get a lot of natural light and still provide some insulation.”

One wall of my office is made of that glass block that I sometimes find myself slightly hypnotized by, while another wall has a window with a full view of the Grove Arcade. Longtime ACT investigations reporter Joel Burgess said he also always appreciated our building's allure.

“The light in that building bending through the glass blocks is striking — and the map of Western North Carolina on the floor of the entryway. It always caused me to pause when I came in. It quieted things in my head, just a bit,” he said.

“I also thought it was notable that 14 O. Henry was built during the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. It makes you realize the importance and viability of a newspaper like the Citizen Times.”

The Citizen Times has been the newspaper of record, the constant chronicler of Asheville history for more than 150 years. We were recently able to safely secure the preservation of our precious photo archives by donating them to UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library. The rest of the archives, including 100-year-old newspaper clippings, will remain with us when we move to new digs.

How to find us

With the advent of social media, bloggers and online-only news sites, daily newspapers – those that separate their news sources from their funders and compete for ad dollars – are on the decline, many having curtailed their print products or closed altogether.

But the Citizen Times and our staff of passionate, non-compromising journalists are not going anywhere. We will keep telling the stories that need to be told, no matter how uncomfortable they are for the comfortable, no matter the shade we’re thrown or the threats we receive – and there are plenty.

This newspaper has been that trusted source for the truth throughout its history. It was a gathering place when the stock market crashed, residents rushing to find out what was happening, a site of celebration at the end of World War II, in later years a place to buy an Extra Edition on 9/11/2001, and the scene of sweat, tears and happiness as the start and finish line of the Citizen Times Half-Marathon in the early aughts.

I know that people will still always identify the paper with the building, even though we haven’t been open to the public in many years. The days of walking directly into our newsroom – and many across the country – ended in June 2018 when a man angry with an article published in the Capital Gazette in Maryland stormed their newsroom, shooting five journalists to death and injuring others.

That’s when the dangers of being a journalist became very real and we locked our office doors. Just this week a man threatened to physically hurt me and a member of my staff. It’s unfortunate, but it doesn’t keep us from doing our jobs. I know that people will be sad and maybe some even mad about our latest move. But I ask that you not confuse a building with its staff or the work that we do.

The Citizen Times staff can be reached, as they are today, by visiting our Contact Us page, at https://help.citizen-times.com and our Staff Directory page at citizen-times.com/contact/staff/ or emailing news@citizentimes.com.

The building’s owner told me he intends to keep the “Citizen-Times” sign on the iconic building. That brings me some sense of peace, to know all those decades of memories will still have a solid “home.”

But it also reminds me that a city is more than a skyline and a newspaper is more than a building. It’s living and breathing and changing but always moving forward and working for change.

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This is the opinion of Karen Chávez, Executive Editor for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Tips, comments, questions? Call 828-236-8980, email, KChavez@CitizenTimes.com or follow on Twitter @KarenChavezACT.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville Citizen Times to relocate from downtown building