The Newseum Is Moving: Reports

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Newseum will be moving after Johns Hopkins University purchased their building on Pennsylvania Avenue for $372.5 million, according to multiple reports.

Johns Hopkins plans to use the space to expand its local academic facilities, and it will be used for research and education, the university said in a statement.

It's been no secret that the Newseum has struggled financially. It has occupied that location for only a little more than a decade. Its owner, the Freedom Forum, announced in 2017 it would explore a sale of the building.

There is not yet any word on where the Newseum will go, and when it will abandon its current home.

"With the acquisition and renovation of the Newseum, we will have an unparalleled opportunity to bring all of our current D.C.-based Johns Hopkins graduate programs together in a single, landmark, state-of-the-art building," Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels said in a report posted on the university's website."Moreover, the renovated building will provide opportunities for every academic division of the university to pursue research and educational activities in Washington—complementing and drawing on those conducted on our flagship Baltimore campuses and deepening our connections to debates over national and global policy. Our commitment to contributing our ideas and expertise to these debates lies at the core of what it means to be a vital and relevant university."

The Freedom Forum said the Newseum would remain open at least through 2019.

"The sale comes at the conclusion of a 16-month strategic review, announced in August 2017, of the Freedom Forum’s funding priorities, including an assessment of the Newseum’s unsustainable operating costs," the statement reads. "The purpose of the review was to identify financially responsible solutions for the building through creative partnerships, a partial sale, leaseback scenarios, or other joint ventures. Despite those efforts, the Freedom Forum review made clear that a sale of the facility was the best path forward to enable the organization and its affiliates to continue their First Amendment-based mission. Johns Hopkins will acquire the property for $372.5 million."

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