ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA.- The Freedom Forum, the nonpartisan foundation that funds and operates the Newseum, closed the interactive museum of news in Arlington on March 3. The museum closing signals the next stage of the organization’s plan to relocate the Newseum and the Freedom Forum’s headquarters to Washington, D.C., in 2006. “It took us five years to plan and build the museum in Arlington, and the new Newseum will be nearly three times as large,” said Freedom Forum Chairman and CEO Charles L. Overby. “We are focusing our energies and resources on developing content, acquiring artifacts and planning a visitor experience that will be even more educational, entertaining and enlightening.” Newseum officials have begun discussions with several organizations to create partnerships that will allow the museum to move its daily newspaper front-page display and some of its programming activities and educational outreach to the District of Columbia during the transition. Information on programs and exhibits is available on the Newseum Web site, www.newseum.org. “We are grateful to Arlington County, particularly the community of Rosslyn, for hosting the Newseum in its first five years. In that time we have proven that both Arlington and the Newseum are powerful magnets for visitors to the national capital region,” said Joe Urschel, executive director of the Newseum. The Newseum opened to the public on April 18, 1997, and since then has welcomed more than 2.2 million visitors. Freedom Park and the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial, which are located adjacent to the Newseum’s offices, will remain open to the public. The park is open daily from dawn to dusk. The new Newseum will be located at Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., between the U.S. Capitol and the White House and across the street from the National Gallery of Art. The 555,000-square-foot complex will include the Newseum, the Freedom Forum’s headquarters and international conference center, restaurant and retail facilities, and approximately 100 housing units. The site will allow the Newseum to triple its present size. The Freedom Forum closed the $100 million purchase of the site from the District of Columbia in December 2000. Demolition of the former Department of Employment Services building previously on the site was completed in January 2002.