When my mom was a kid during the Depression, she and my grandparents had to move in with relatives. Times were tough.

That's a lot like what's about to happen with The News & Observer/Durham News staff.

Our 10-member news crew is moving late this month to Chapel Hill, where we'll share quarters with our Orange County colleagues -- and where our company owns the building. Free rent.

I won't try to put lipstick and a lace bonnet on this pig. It's going to be harder to cover Durham from a Chapel Hill base. But a dollar we save in rent is a dollar we don't have to cut elsewhere. If moving preserves a reporting or photo job, it's a good tradeoff.

Our business, you may have heard, isn't as profitable as it used to be. Some of the bad stuff is temporary and can be blamed on a sour economy; some is permanent, a reflection of changes in the ways advertisers advertise and people get information.

All of that made it a bad time for the lease to expire at our current Durham digs at Duke and Main streets, upstairs from Parker and Otis. For months, our plan had been to move to a smaller, less expensive space nearby. No more. The money guys say we have to save every dime we can.

Our move does not signify any diminished commitment to Durham or a sign of problems with our operation here. The Durham News makes a nice profit, and The N&O is one of McClatchy's top performers. We're just doing our part in the company-wide penny-pinching.

My bosses in Raleigh say they hope the move is temporary. I hope they're right.