LNP Media Group to close office at 101NQ in downtown Lancaster, seek smaller space elsewhere

• By Chad Umble / LNP | LancasterOnline

LNP | LancasterOnline is leaving downtown Lancaster – perhaps for good – ending the newspaper’s unbroken, 231-year history in the city where it made headlines for its support of economic development.

LNP Media Group, which publishes a daily newspaper, two weekly newspapers and a news website, will vacate its 41,000-square-foot downtown Lancaster offices by the end of October and have most of its employees work remotely until a new, smaller office is found.

The second-floor office at the corner of Queen and Orange streets is leased for around $1 million a year. Digby Solomon, interim publisher of LNP | LancasterOnline, informed employees of the decision in a Sept. 25 email describing it as a cost-saving move.

“Given how little space we use at 101 N. Queen, we have decided to vacate the premises by Oct. 31. The savings we realize can better be put to use generating local journalism,” Solomon wrote.

In his email to employees, Solomon told them to have their desks cleared by Tuesday, Oct. 7, so computers and other equipment can be moved by IT staff.

Solomon’s email to employees did not indicate how much money he thought could be saved by leaving the office and he did not respond to that question in several follow-up emails. In one follow-up response, Solomon said the company is looking for new office space “both in the city and the nearby suburbs,” adding that the search could be concluded “within a few weeks.”

As the company is making plans for a new office, a workspace with about 12 workstations and a conference area is being created in Greenfield office park at 1704 Hempstead Road, within the East Lampeter Township offices of Susquehanna Printing, which prints the daily newspaper.

Susquehanna Printing is owned by Steinman Communications. In June 2023, Steinman Communications gifted LNP Media Group to public broadcaster WITF, which took over the lease of the 101 N. Queen St. offices.

WITF has an office near Harrisburg and now operates with LNP | LancasterOnline as a single organization under the Pennon name.

“It’s incredibly important, in my mind, to have a physical presence in the community we serve — not just for our staff, but so the people we serve can continue to have direct, in-person access to our team,” said Tom Murse, executive editor of LNP | LancasterOnline and vice president of journalism at Pennon.

Move during pandemic

The shuttering of the LNP Media Group offices at 101 N. Queen St. after five years closes the door on a sleek, modern office that was underutilized from the beginning.

Steinman Communications announced plans in June 2019 for LNP | LancasterOnline to leave its longtime offices at 8 W. King St. and move just over a block away to the glassy office, residential and commercial complex being constructed at Queen and Orange streets. What is now known as 101NQ was created from the windowless brick monolith that opened in 1971 as the Hess department store and then became a home for Bulova, which produced fuzes to detonate artillery shells. The building was vacated in 2009.

The announcement of plans for a new office at 101 N. Queen St. came during celebrations of the newspaper’s 225th anniversary, when it was also announced that the press would be returning to Lancaster County after a five-year hiatus and the newspaper’s entire archive was being digitized.

But LNP’s actual move to 101NQ happened during the summer of 2020, when restrictions meant to limit the spread of COVID-19 forced employees to work remotely if possible. When the restrictions on in-person work were lifted, LNP did not order employees back to the office, and most employees continued to work from home, an arrangement that persists.

The company also has fewer employees now. When the move to 101 N. Queen St. was announced, 180 people were expected to come along, a number that included Steinman Communications, Steinman Real Estate and Steinman Foundation employees, who moved out earlier this year. Layoffs in October 2024 of WITF and LNP employees reduced the LNP Media Group headcount, which is now around 130.

Solomon, who was named interim publisher in late August and spends several days a week at the office, said there’s “rarely more than a couple dozen people” working at 101 N. Queen St.

“It’s wasteful to pay for so much unused space,” Solomon said in an email.

Leasing the office costs around $1 million a year, a calculation based on figures in WITF’s published financial reports. Solomon confirmed the $1 million annual cost.

WITF’s operating lease costs in the fiscal year before taking over LNP and the lease for 101 N. Queen St. were $154,000. Those costs jumped to $1.2 million the next fiscal year, according to WITF’s consolidated financial statements published on its website

Solomon said there are 12.5 years remaining on what was originally an 18-year lease. He did not respond to a question about the terms for getting out of the lease early. A representative of building owner Zamagias Properties did not respond to a request for comment.

Steinman Communications, which continues to publish Lancaster Farming, had previously occupied part of a mezzanine in the 101 N. Queen St. office, as did the Steinman Foundation. A representative from Steinman Communications did not respond to a request for comment.

Corinn Kirchner of PPM Real Estate, which handles the leasing for Zamagias, said it will be a challenge to find a new tenant for the large office LNP is leaving.

“Anything over 15,000 square feet is challenged right now, but like any piece of real estate, it just takes one right tenant for it,” she said.

Changing to address business challenges

The departure of LNP | LancasterOnline from 101 N. Queen St. comes as the company has been trying to adapt its business model for readers increasingly accustomed to getting their news online instead of reading it in a physical newspaper.

Since LNP moved to 101 N. Queen Street, its number of digital subscribers has been growing while its print circulation has cratered.

When the move to 101 N. Queen St. was announced in June 2019, LNP’s Sunday print circulation was 75,777 and daily circulation was 60,344, according to an LNP news story on the move. Total paid distribution averaged 27,098 a day in the year before Sept. 15, according to an annual circulation report filed with the U.S. Postal Service and published Friday in LNP.

At the end of September, LNP | LancasterOnline had just over 14,297 active digital-only subscribers, up from 12,618 digital subscribers in June 2020, according to a company newsletter from 2020 and subscriber report shared with managers.

Industrywide, the rise of online news has caused more than 3,200 newspapers to close since 2005, according to the 2024 annual State of Local News Report by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The report estimated that fewer than 5,600 newspapers remain, 80% of which are weeklies.

As LNP | LancasterOnline has increased its digital efforts amid the decline of print circulation, the newspaper continues to be printed seven days a week, albeit with fewer pages.

Last October, the number of pages in the newspaper was reduced by four to eight pages Monday through Saturday and by 12 pages on Sunday. The newspaper now typically has 60 pages Sundays and between 16 and 20 pages on the other days.

The shrinking of the paper came as Pennon laid off about 24 employees, a cut that amounted to 10% of the total staff of LNP and WITF.

In February, editorial staff voted to unionize and affiliate with the NewsGuild of Greater Pennsylvania Local 38010, which is currently negotiating a union contract with the company. NewsGuild Executive Director Bill Ross said he hopes some of the savings from not leasing such a large office can benefit union members.

Backing downtown a corporate value

When LNP Media Group closes its office at 101 N. Queen St., it will be the first time in the newspaper’s 231-year history that it doesn’t have a presence in Lancaster city. A commitment to keeping the company in downtown Lancaster had been a hallmark of the Steinman family, which formerly owned the newspaper.

In the late 1970s, when downtown Lancaster was emptying out, the Steinmans decided against building a new headquarters on the outskirts of Lancaster. Instead, they undertook a major renovation of their properties in the first block of West King Street, construction that included the creation of Steinman Park. That investment helped breathe some life into downtown Lancaster where retailers were struggling because of new shopping options in the suburbs and the outskirts of the city, including Park City Center, which debuted in 1971.

The Steinmans also partnered with others to boost downtown’s flagging fortunes. In the early 2000s, what was then Lancaster Newspapers was a partner in the redevelopment of the former Watt & Shand department store on Penn Square into the Lancaster County Convention Center, which opened in 2009.

The Steinmans’ commitment to downtown Lancaster was celebrated during a June 2019 ceremony attended by Gov. Tom Wolf marking the newspaper’s 225th anniversary and announcing the plans to move LNP’s offices to 101 N. Queen St.

With LNP now leaving its prominent downtown spot, Marshall Snively, president of the Lancaster City Alliance, said he hopes the company won’t be gone for long.

“Frankly, with LNP’s rich history in being a corporate leader, partner, and champion for the city, it would be a blow to downtown and the legacy of the paper to see LNP leave the city completely,” he said.

Downtown timeline

1794: The Lancaster Journal is launched from an office in a tavern at 8 W. King St.

1840: Newspaper moves across the street

1866: A.J. Steinman becomes owner of the then-Lancaster Intelligencer, which had its offices at 8 S. Queen St.

1905: A.J. Steinman and his nephew, Charles Steinman Folz, buy the two-story building at 8 W. King St. and move the Intelligencer there the next year.

1927: Building at 8 W. King is torn down and a new five-story building for the newspaper is constructed in its place.

1985: Top-to-bottom renovation of the building, which was expanded into 12-14 W. King St.

2019: Steinman Communications announces plans to sell 8 W. King St. and move to 101 N. Queen St.

June 2023: Steinman Communications donates LNP Media Group to WITF. Ceremony marking the handover is attended by Beverly R. “Peggy” Steinman, chairman emeritus of Steinman Communications and granddaughter of A.J. Steinman.

September 2025: LNP Media Group announces plans to vacate 101 N. Queen St. by the end of October.