Office rearrangement

We're in the midst of a complete reorganization of our newsroom. As long as I've been here - four years - we've been in a back little room that seats maybe eight total, but it's almost always been me and my staff of 2 and the business editor, meaning it's quiet and we get to go about our work. There's a door and stuff, so that's nice.

But with the recent rearrangement, there is talk of putting us smack dab in the middle of the newsroom, in the open. No privacy, with all the gossip and conversations of advertising and other news reporters well within distance.

I'm interested to see how your departments are situated, and whether being "out in the open" is, indeed, not a nuisance at all or if you'd fight for your own corner or what have you to go about your business.

 

At one stop, we were out in the open, and in another, we couldn't see the front desk.

 

Eh, I think it's impossible to tell what kind of an effect it'll have without knowing the composition of your newsroom and what not. I'm the type that likes being in the middle of the newsroom, BSing and chatting it up with others; I kind of view that as the function, to spitball and brainstorm and chat with other writers. If I want to get something done without distraction, I normally just stay at home now.

Luckily, at my last shop, the seating assignments were by choice. So, for us younger and noisier people, we were in the middle, with some of the sports guys who liked quiet in the back behind a partition, and the photo / audio people in the office.

 

We would be surrounded by the other news reporters and right by the editor's office. Advertising/sales would also be well within distance.

I don't know if that helps any.

 

I meant more like the personalities at play here. Do you want to be in a busier area? Do you have a news editor who demands on silence, or are they willing to let people get nosy and animated? Do you think it'll be an impediment to your work if you're in a noisier area?

 

We went from a really nice quiet spot where we could bitch and whine and no one heard us to being moved basically in the middle of the noisiest spot in the newsroom, between the graphics department and the designers. Not only does their noise really disturb us but now every little bitchy remark we make gets heard by people who all go running to whine to their supervisors if they hear it. Not a good situation. Good luck!

 

The only good thing about our design being done at another paper is it's just sports in the office after 7 on most nights.
Of course, since it's a two-man show, there's a few nights a week when there is only one person in the newsroom at night.

 

My shop isn't big enough to have partitioned rooms, so all the reporters are out in the open with the advertising and front desk crew. It's not so bad because most of the advertisers are out of the office for a large part of the day, but around quitting time, it gets pretty loud.

 

Our department is in the panhandle of a big rectangular newsroom, with this big empty chasm where people used to work before layoffs. It can still get noisy or distracting at times, and if I need to write and have no phone or production obligations, out comes the iPod.

 

The news reporters are relatively quiet. The advertising/sales folks are a chatty, irritating bunch. Loud, obnoxious.

Our guys are pretty much quiet. Not loud at all.

What I fear is exactly what Magic in the Night noted.

 

Newsrooms are supposed to be loud.

 

I agree. I've always said that this isn't a fucking golf tournament. There's nothing worse than walking past a news copy desk where the people are all like Chief Broom in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."