As rumors of impending layoffs circulate at the Washington Post, the newspaper has confirmed at least one future change: its Springfield printing plant will close.
The 46-year-old facility, which sits just inside the Capital Beltway (I-495) at 7171 Wimsatt Road, is expected to be replaced by a new facility in Loudoun County next year, the Washington Business Journal reported earlier this month.
Located in Sterling, the new facility is expected to be at least five times smaller than the Post’s current printing plant, reflecting a decline in print readership.
According to estimates by the Alliance for Audited Media, which were reported last summer by the Washington City Paper, the Post’s print circulation had dropped to under 100,000 subscribers for the first time in at least 55 years.
“We’ve been in optimization mode on the print side probably for the last 10 or 15 years to match our circulation declines, to match the changing habits of readers,” chief of print operations Gregg Fernandes told the WBJ.
Currently under construction, the new facility is one of four buildings being built near the Loudoun Gateway Metro station under a project led by San Francisco-based real estate developer Prologis Inc.
It is expected that the new facility will be between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet. The Post intends to lease the building, as opposed to outright purchasing the space.
“Following in the steps of what we did 50 years ago didn’t seem like the best option,” Fernandes told the WBJ.
The future of the Springfield plant, which spans 500,000 square feet and sits on a 40-acre plot of land, is not currently known.
Across Backlick Road, the property is neighbored by a handful of warehouses and industrial parks, including multiple Amazon buildings and the Fairfax County Logistics Center, where county property is stored.
“It’s a fairly large parcel of land with some pretty good industrial rating, so we’ll figure out what’s best use and go from there,” Fernandes said.
Fernandes wasn’t available to speak to FFXnow, but a Washington Post spokesperson confirmed that January 2027 is the earliest that printing operations will be relocated.
Despite the shift to a smaller facility, the Post spokesperson said the news organization “is doubling down on its future in print for the market.”
