The Dallas Morning News is exploring the possibility of moving to a new downtown location after 67 years in its current building, the newspaper announced.
Publisher Jim Moroney said the move would enable the paper to create a modern newsroom more tightly focused on its digital news products.
“Our greatest audience by far is coming through websites and apps and we need to create a new newsroom that really speaks to that,” Moroney said. “It reflects the technology that’s driving our business.”
“The Rock of Truth,” that’s what some call the Dallas Morning News building. It’s a phrase borrowed from a quote by GB Dealey, the paper’s legendary and longtime publisher, and etched into stone on the front of the building. It reads:
“Build the news upon the rock of truth and righteousness. Conduct it always upon the lines of fairness and integrity. Acknowledge the right of the people to get from the newspaper both sides of every important question.”
From a real estate perspective, it’s a profitable time to sell The Rock.
Long an urban afterthought, the southwest corner of downtown is now hot property thanks to the Omni Hotel, and a stylish renovation in the former Belo Tower.
“I think that is an enormously valuable piece of real estate,” said John Crawford with Downtown Dallas, Inc.
With a new emphasis on downtown developments that offer a combination of live-work-play, Crawford said he can see the site redeveloped with a mix of housing and retail.
Other ideas include a transportation hub for the proposed high speed rail line from Houston to Dallas’ Union Station, which is next door to the paper.
“This is all part of a bigger vision, longer-term plan that will fit together very nicely,” Crawford said.
Journalistically, Tony Pederson, the Journalism Chair at SMU, said it just makes sense for the Dallas Morning News to radically change the way it does business.
“It’s a non-traditional move, very clearly, but to survive, newspapers have to survive in very non-traditional ways. I think the Morning News is doing that,” said Pederson.
It’s not a done deal, but plans to innovate the Dallas Morning News are well underway.
So, what would GB Dealey say today?
“I think he would say, ‘if this is going to help this organization, which I helped to start, over 130 years ago, do better journalism that’s going to continue to make Dallas an even better place to live and grow up, then I’m all for it. Go do it,’” Moroney said.
It may be a future with a little less rock, but, Moroney said, the same amount of truth.