The Lynett-Haggerty family donated the Scranton Times Building late last year to a charity consulting firm, with local organizations poised to benefit from the future sale of the iconic property, Scott Lynett said.
The family is working with Charitable Solutions LLC, a consulting firm focused on managing complex, noncash charitable giving, to facilitate the sale, which will be done through the Dechomai Foundation, a national fund founded in 2003 to assist charitable organizations and donors, Lynett said.
The Scranton Times building in downtown Scranton Monday, January 5, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Additionally, the Dechomai Foundation will directly distribute the funds from the sale to local charities, which the family has yet to determine, Lynett said.
“The Scranton community has been great to our family for a long, long time, and we saw that as a way to give back,” he said.
The Times-Tribune relocated to the Grand Army of the Republic Building at 305 Linden St., Scranton, in November 2023.
The newspaper staff had been housed in the Scranton Times Building at 149 Penn Ave. since 1926.
Some of the newspaper’s news, advertising, technology and finance staff moved into the new location while others, including most of the reporting staff, work remotely and from home.
That change followed an announcement Aug. 31, 2023, regarding the sale of Times-Shamrock Communications’ newspaper group, including The Times-Tribune, to Colorado-based MediaNews Group.
Times-Shamrock’s nine-member board of directors voted unanimously to recommend the sale to the four voting shareholders at the time — William R. Lynett, Cecelia Lynett Haggerty and Edward J. Lynett Jr., who all approved the sale, and George V. Lynett, who opposed it.
“The decision to sell our newspapers in Northeastern Pennsylvania was a difficult one for our entire family,” the Lynett-Haggerty family said in a statement following the announcement. “We are deeply grateful to our loyal employees, our readers, and our advertisers who have supported us over the years.”
Board Chairman Bill Goodspeed called the decision “difficult for a lot of people,” noting numerous headwinds facing the industry, including declining readership, circulation and advertising revenue.
The sale included the company’s four daily newspapers — The Times-Tribune, The Citizens’ Voice, the Republican Herald and The Standard-Speaker — as well as its weekly and periodic newspapers, commercial printing operations, Absolute Distribution Inc. and Times-Shamrock Creative Services. Also included in the sale was the real estate for the printing operations.
It did not include Times-Shamrock’s radio or billboard operations, or the Scranton Times Building.
Radio operations will continue inside the building as part of a five-year lease, Scott Lynett said.