Columbian heading back to Eighth Street

Scott Campbell, Columbian publisher

On Monday, The Columbian news, advertising and related operations will open for business in the company’s 701 W. Eighth St. building in downtown Vancouver.

An address change over the weekend will relocate the newspaper from a six-story office building adjacent to the Hilton Vancouver Washington on West Sixth Street, where it had moved only 11 months earlier. Everything from postage meters to file cabinets, computers to coffee pots will be boxed up, transported and unpacked over three days starting tonight.

The Columbian, among downtown’s largest employers with 263 workers, has faced a wrenching economic climate that prompted the address change (first announced in October) as a cost-saving measure.

“The Columbian has had to make some tough decisions related to significant declines in advertising revenue,” Publisher Scott Campbell said Thursday. “The move is the responsible thing for the company. What we face is not unlike what many or most businesses are facing during this unprecedented economic downturn.”

One Columbian employee remarked that working in the new building with its dramatic entry, spectacular river views and open design has been “like staying in a nice hotel.” But, she said, “now we’re checking out and going home.” The West Eighth Street building was built by Campbell’s father and grandfather in 1955.

More than six years ago, Campbell and his wife, Jody, doing business as Downtown Vitality Partners, began planning for construction of the $40 million combination newspaper and commercial office building at 415 W. Sixth St., which opened in January. Now the building, including the four floors of vacated newspaper space, is actively being marketed to potential lease clients and to buyers, said Doug Ness, Columbian chief financial officer. Negotiations with all interested parties are being handled by the commercial brokerage firm Norris Beggs & Simpson.

Campbell and Ness estimated the move back to Eighth Street is costing “several hundred thousand dollars,” with much of the expenditure going toward upgrades to the building’s broadband Internet capacity.

“We are so fortunate to have the facility to move back to,” Campbell said. “It will be sufficient for what we are facing.”

He said The Columbian, which produces a daily print newspaper, operates a Web site at columbian.com and publishes a variety of other special print and online products, was encouraged by major lender Bank of America’s willingness to work with the business on a long-term strategy to sell or lease the building.

“We are preparing for every possible contingency to ride out the economic situation,” Campbell said. “We’ve never experienced an environment as unpredictable as this. The (newspaper) business is evolving, but there’s a very important print business here that still provides most of the revenue to support our news gathering. Having said that, our online business is growing in importance. The new business model is being invented, right now, and we’ve got to be part of that.”

Campbell pointed out that the combined audience of The Columbian print and online products is near the newspaper’s all-time high when print readership was the only measure.