Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star Moves to Central Park

The end of an era as the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star moves out of downtown Fredericksburg and into Central Park along Rt. 3:

“It will look a lot cleaner, sharper, and more professional,” said Jamie Scully of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. He and Sharon Schmidt, along with Susan Bourgeois of Rappaport, represented the landlord.

The Free Lance–Star’s 90,000-square-foot building at 616 Amelia St. was sold to local developer William J. Vakos Jr. in November, along with its parking lot across William Street. The Free Lance–Star is leasing the building from Vakos through the end of the year.

“Obviously the current space is much greater than we need,” Lachniet said, noting that the company moved its printing operations to the Print Innovators production facility it opened on Belman Road in 2010.

Once upon a time, the Free Lance-Star was the largest independent newspaper in Virginia, with a massive new printing press that expected to run the Washington Post’s more southernly editions.

That was during the heyday, at least…

Truth be told, I’m a bit dismayed to see a local landmark leave the downtown area and wander into suburban hell with the rest of the nameless and faceless institutions.  Even the removal of the “iconic” (it’s not) statue is a sign that Downtown Fredericksburg isn’t the locus of activity it once was, though overall, I’m sure the move is good for the FLS.

Yet this does bring about other questions as we see the MSM collapse in the era of digital media.  New media operations such as Bearing Drift were often blamed for the collapse, and a few organizations such as the Washington Post saw the value in new media and simply started gobbling up bloggers, op-ed columnists, and brands.

Few institutions in Virginia have done this — or even approximated it.

Sure, some have turned their reporters into bloggers (journalists being too expensive), but with an antiquated editorial process and barely enough interest, no one really cared about the transition.

My great-uncle rose started out as one of those paperboys to running the advertising department of the Free Lance-Star.  By the time my brothers were running paper routes, they were barely paid $40 a month (and I doubt their names made it to the pedestal — the overseer wasn’t exactly the definition of organized).  What started as a family and an institution that loved printing and the craft of news slowly turned into a business huddled around “the editorial line” that screamed bias more than information.

That started to change with the late Paul Akers, a man whom I admired and respected greatly.  One wonders precisely how much of his legacy remains at the FLS.

Another point of wonder?  I was in Fredericksburg during the whole Central Park/Celebrate Virginia episode, as people wondered aloud where the city center would be migrating towards.  Images of Disney America and protecting battlefields that can never be brought back loomed large.

Celebrate Virginia ultimately never quite panned out as advertised… but to see the FLS migrate to Silverburg (the late Carl Silver being the architect and godfather of the project) seems like an ironic win for the monolith against the historic preservationists and no-growth set.

Time rolls on.