The Wichita Eagle is moving, but not far: ‘We like being in the heart of the city’

Carrie Rengers
·2 min read
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Of all the moves The Wichita Eagle has made in its long history, its latest is the most epic.

That’s because the publication is moving to the Epic Center, the 23-story tallest building in Kansas at the northwest corner of Second and Main streets downtown.

That also happens to be one block from The Eagle’s first home in 1872 in a wood building at Third and Main streets.

“We have always been in downtown Wichita, and that was one of our highest priorities in picking out a new office,” said executive editor Michael Roehrman.

“We like being in the heart of the city.”

Most recently, The Eagle has been in Old Town Square, next door to CityArts. It moved there in 2017 after decades at 825 E. Douglas, across from Larkspur.

At that time, The Eagle switched from owning its own building to leasing.

The pandemic prompted the latest move.

“We are just like almost every other business that found that it was easy to work remotely,” Roehrman said. “Right now, a lot of our reporters prefer to work from home and in the community, and we just have a few who come in to the office every day.”

The new space is 2,500 square feet. Roehrman said it didn’t make sense to stay in the 10,000-square-foot Old Town space.

“That was not fiscally responsible.”

In addition to offices, the new space will have a conference room that can accommodate in-person newsroom meetings, though most of the newsroom’s weekday meetings are held online.

The Eagle will be joining a number of prominent businesses at the Epic Center, which is home to lawyers, accountants and federal workers, including the FBI, Secret Service and U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Phil Ruffin purchased the Epic Center in 2015, calling it a “beautiful building.”

The late Willard Garvey and his Builders Inc. built the building in 1986.

If it seems like The Eagle has been peripatetic of late, it’s actually just carrying on a tradition for the 152-year-old business.

Founder Marshall Murdock moved the newspaper office three times in the 36 years he was at the helm.

Though The Eagle still has a print edition most days, its future — much like its newsroom — is online.

“We’ve come a long way from Murdock’s times,” Roehrman said.

“We’re now a digital company that also publishes a newspaper,” he said. “With more than 1.1 million monthly unique visitors reading The Eagle online, our reach is bigger than ever.”