The Los Angeles Times, like newspapers across the country, has made headlines of late for its declining circulation and shrinking profit margins, but at least one small part of the company’s business is on the rise.

The paper’s downtown headquarters has hosted a growing number of film and television shoots over the past 18 months. The filming, which can bring in about $10,000 a day, has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. And in the process, the building is becoming familiar to industry insiders as a premier production location.

“It’s a great place to film,” said J.J. Hook, location manager for the upcoming movie “Lions for Lambs,” which shot several scenes in the building. “They’re very accommodating.”

Since managers began allowing filming full-time early last year, shooting has mostly been limited to the building’s empty sixth floor. But in February “Lions for Lambs,” starring Hollywood heavyweights Robert Redford and Meryl Streep and directed by Redford, became the first production to film in the live offices of the building, with scenes during office hours in the New Media department on the fifth floor.

The movie, which is slated to open in November, features Streep as a journalist, Redford as a college professor and Tom Cruise as a U.S. senator.

The Times building has been the site of a number of high-profile shoots recently, including the upcoming Steve Carell vehicle “Get Smart” a cinematic update of the popular 1960s TV series. It has also served as a location for such television shows as “Brothers & Sisters” and “Nip/Tuck,” as well as commercials for Microsoft Corp. and McDonald’s Corp.

“Filming is doing quite well,” said Cletus Page, manager of administrative services for the Times. “We do this every month. We’re pretty well-known in the Hollywood industry.”

With 28 days of permitted on-location filming in the building this year, 2007 has already surpassed last year’s total of 25 days, according to figures provided by FilmL.A. Inc., a non-profit corporation that promotes on-location film production in Los Angeles. The number of permitted days does not include equipment setup and other preproduction work that is done at the location, which can last for several weeks in some cases.

Page, who has worked for the company since 1972, has been tasked with a variety of duties over the years, from running vehicle fleets to handling real estate, but since the paper began renting out the building for regular film and television production, he said his job consists almost entirely of handling movie shoots.

The building drew attention for its filming last fall when DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen whose film, “Dreamgirls,” was partially shot in the Times offices made a play to buy the newspaper. The billionaire publicly courted the Times, but lost in his bid after real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell agreed to buy the Tribune Co. in March.

The corporate offices on the sixth floor have been unoccupied since around 2000, when they were converted to conference rooms after Chicago-based Tribune bought the Times Mirror Co.

The building is decidedly less occupied than it was even just a few years ago, as more than 200 positions at the paper have been eliminated in the past two years.

But Page said the decision to allow filming was not related to size of the paper’s staff.