The Mercury News announced today that it is putting its 36-acre campus at I-880 and Brokaw Road in San Jose up for sale and will move its news, advertising and business operations to a location to be determined.

The Merc will be printed by the company’s presses in Concord and Hayward, which should give the San Jose paper more color capability and the ability to increase page count.

The timing of the move depends on when the Merc can find new office space.

“Our current campus is simply too large and too expensive to operate for
our current business operation,” Publisher Mac Tully said in a note to
employees. 

The Merc has been located at 760 Ridder Park Drive since 1967. At the time, it was billed as the world’s largest one-story newspaper plant. The 312,000-square-foot main building held more than 1,000 employees at one time.

The move seems to be part of a trend of large metro newspapers putting their buildings up for sale. Last month, The Washington Post said it was exploring the sale of its headquarters and the Detroit News-Detroit Free Press have announced they would sell their downtown building.