
We’re Moving: The Sacramento Bee Announces The Location Of Its New Newsroom
Source: The Sacramento Bee
Brokers: Scott Kingston
The Sacramento Bee will move into a new newsroom at the Cannery development, a business park campus near midtown, later this year.
The newspaper announced last fall that it would return from the COVID-19 closure to a new office space, departing this summer from its longtime home at 2100 Q St. Bee journalists have been working on a primarily remote basis since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Colleen McCain Nelson, executive editor of The Sacramento Bee, informed staff in a Friday letter that the publication will be moving its office space to the Cannery, which is located along Alhambra and Stockton boulevards, about a mile away from the former location.
“Journalism, of course, transcends a building, but our dynamic new spot ensures that we will have a physical presence in the community we serve,” Nelson wrote. “Here, too, we will be able to gather again as a newsroom and continue The Bee’s commitment to Sacramento.”
The Bee newsroom, advertising operations and headquarters for the publication’s parent company, McClatchy, had been based at the sprawling 21st and Q location for nearly 70 years but will move to the smaller space in the coming months.
The Bee’s lease of the Cannery site begins July 1, but Nelson said there are still logistical details to nail down regarding “when and how” employees will transition back to in-person work after more than a year of remote work.
Coronavirus transmission rates are improving in the region. With statewide COVID-19 numbers and vaccine progress improving, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently set June 15 as the target date to fully reopen the economy, lifting effectively all pandemic restrictions except for the mask mandate, provided that there are no significant setbacks in the vaccine campaign over the next two months.
Announcement of the departure from 2100 Q St. came weeks after hedge fund Chatham Asset Management took control of McClatchy through a bankruptcy auction, and also amid industry-wide declines in ad revenue due to the pandemic. The newspaper’s print production operations moved to a different Northern California location, in Fremont, earlier this year.
The property owner for 2100 Q St. said earlier this year that the building, which takes up a city block, would likely be redeveloped into housing.