Worcester Telegram Vacating Downtown Office Space: Report

WORCESTER, MA — The only daily newspaper covering the Worcester area will move out of its offices in a downtown building that bears its logo, according to the Worcester Business Journal.

The law firm Fletcher Tilton will soon occupy two floors inside the 19-story Mercantile tower at 100 Front St., including the Telegram's 5th floor space, the business journal reported Thursday. The Mercantile Center's owner did not disclose to the WBJ whether the Telegram would move to another space inside the building.

The Worcester Telegram's logo adorns the top of the Mercantile Center tower, although the newspaper has shrunk in the years following the 2019 merger of GateHouse Media and Gannett.

At the end of 2020, four longtime staffers exited the newspaper within a short span, and several more have left since, including two city hall reporters. Since May 2022, Telegram veterans Kim Ring and photographer Christine Peterson and four reporters left, according to the masthead.

On Friday, the newspaper listed 21 editorial staff members: two editors, 11 news reporters — including staff at Worcester Magazine, a publication scooped up by GateHouse in 2018 — two photographers and six sports reporters.

Gannett is the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. with about 200 daily newspapers under its belt, including the MetroWest Daily News, Milford Daily News, Cape Cod Times, the Gardner News, the Providence Journal and the Patriot Ledger. Gannett has cut some of its daily newspaper print editions in recent years, and closed several weekly newspapers.

The company cut 600 jobs in 2022, leading to two consecutive quarters of positive profits, according to Poynter.