In 1969, Norfolk-based Landmark Communications bought The Roanoke Times, then an 83-year-old institution.

It marked the first time in 60 years that members of the city's prominent Fishburn family didn't own a primary interest in the city's largest newspaper.

Thursday, Landmark announced it is exploring selling its business interests, including The Roanoke Times, in what may signal the first potential ownership change in the past four decades.

It's the kind of news that causes employees to fret, some readers to anticipate a breath of fresh air and business types to consider the broader impact.

Heywood Fralin, chief executive officer of Medical Facilities of America and administrator of the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust, noted that "we're always concerned when a Virginia corporation is being sold, but it's also understandable that things do change over the years."

"I'd be much more concerned about the sale if the corporate headquarters were located in Roanoke," Fralin said. "I think that loss occurred when the Fishburns sold it to Landmark."

Nevertheless, he said that change brought in a company that became not only a business asset, but a philanthropic contributor to the community. "I have nothing but the highest regard for [Landmark's longtime chairman] Frank Batten Sr. and Landmark corporation. They've been outstanding Virginia citizens."

Although Landmark is not generally considered one of the nation's major media players, it does own one of the best-known and most financially successful cable television brands in The Weather Channel, and its online offspring, weather.com.

Those could be worth more than $5 billion, The New York Times reported Thursday. Analysts were more restrained about the prospects for the company's other assets, which may be sold off separately.

Those include nine daily newspapers and more than 100 nondaily publications. The company also owns television stations in Nashville, Tenn., and Las Vegas, and Dominion Enterprises, a chain of classified ad publications in Norfolk.

Many newspapers, particularly in midsize and smaller markets, continue to be highly profitable, but overall circulation has been declining for decades, as has market share for advertising.

In that environment, a media company's decision to sell could be triggered by numerous factors.

Larger family-controlled companies such as Landmark may opt to get out of the business because they do not have family members to succeed the leaders, said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a journalism training organization in Florida.

They also might feel a "sort of fatigue or frustration with business not going well," Edmonds said.

Still, this is not an opportune time to put a company such as Landmark and its newspaper holdings on the sales block, Edmonds contends.

Potential buyers may be scared by the thought of steering a media company into the future, given the newspaper industry's financial state, he said.

"I don't think there's going to be a particularly rich pool of potential buyers," Edmonds said. "When you're trying to engineer a turnaround, I think it's a slightly daunting proposition."

Landmark officials have a different perspective.

In news releases Thursday, corporate officials, including Roanoke Times President and Publisher Debbie Meade, stressed that "the future is bright." She expressed her confidence that "we will continue to be a superb media company."

While ownership may change, "for us, it is business as usual as we are focused on doing our jobs well, achieving our goals and maintaining our commitment to the community we serve," Meade said.

That includes continuing the newspaper's annual philanthropic efforts such as support of United Way and the annual Good Neighbors Fund. Planning for this year's The Roanoke Times Music for Americans Fourth of July celebration is already under way.

The newspaper also provides sponsorships for numerous other community events, as well as free advertising space for charitable causes.

In addition, the newspaper will continue to be a conduit for contributions from the Landmark Foundation, which focuses on funding educational, human services, arts, leadership development and environmental causes. Donations average between $300,000 and $350,000 annually in the region that the newspaper serves.

The Roanoke Times employs 419 people across the news, advertising, circulation and press production departments.

Last summer, to cut expenses, the company offered 21 employees a voluntary retirement buyout. Those and attrition reduced the total work force about 10 percent.

Although the company is leaner now, Meade said readers "will not see any noticeable change in the newspaper tied to the process [of any sale], other than changes to try to make our products better."

Robert Fishburn, grandson of one of the founders and a former editorial writer for the newspaper, noted Thursday that while "you can get an argument about it on any street corner ... I do think in many ways the paper has improved" since its acquisition by Landmark.

As he said, it's not an assessment shared by everyone in the community.

Claudia Whitworth publishes The Roanoke Tribune, a newspaper aimed primarily at the Roanoke Valley's black residents. "I've never been happy with [The Roanoke Times'] coverage of our part of the community," she said Thursday.

"Even today, I just don't think there's been too much progress in that direction," but she acknowledged feeling some anxiety about the possibility of new ownership for the newspaper.

"There are people who aren't concerned about history. And for a new owner, the dollar is often the bottom line." Still, she said, "it could be for the better. We just have that natural anxiety of the unknown."

Salem's Morgan Griffith, the majority leader in the House of Delegates who has been frequently criticized on the newspaper's editorial pages, agreed that it is "clearly too early to tell" what an ownership change might mean.

The paper "could be offered to local investors, theoretically ... that could actually return some of the control into the local area."

That was a prospect Fralin also acknowledged "might be an opportunity ... but there are not many locals left that were connected with the newspaper prior to the sale to Landmark. I'm not sure how much expertise there is left in the valley in the operation of newspapers."

Staff writer Jenny Kincaid-Boone contributed to this report.