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Office rearrangement

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Den1983, Apr 25, 2011.

  1. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    My last newsroom was a morgue and drove me out of the business faster. The draconian editor gal thought that noise = no work getting done. I asked the veteran photographer why there wasn't at least a police scanner running and he looked at me like I was nuts. What I hated most was feeling like the entire office could hear me when I was on the phone -- which they could because there wasn't another sound in the room. And this was a fairly big newsroom with 20 or so in there at peak times. And run like a goshdarned parochial grade-school classroom.
     
  2. Magic In The Night

    Magic In The Night Active Member

    The reason the copy desk is so quiet now is there are so many stories and so much that needs to be fixed that you're cranking from the get-go and no real time to BS around anymore.
     
  3. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Noise does not necessarily equal BS. Adults working in a collaborative environment tends to produce a little sound. The trend of everyone working as if they were encased in a cocoon actually hurts production, IMO.
     
  4. crimsonace

    crimsonace Well-Known Member

    Sadly, this doesn't surprise me, but they still manage to churn out -- IMO -- the single best sub-20,000 circ sports section I've ever seen.

    The best day of my life was the day they rearranged the newsroom and moved sports into a little-used room off to the side. My desk had been right next to the editor's office, which the publisher had a knack for walking into and passing off a hair-brained idea (or complaining about something we were doing) right at the height of deadline. When my staff had an "office" where I could close the door and allow my guys to work, our productivity and morale jumped 1,000%. After I left, they moved those guys out in the newsroom ... right next to the publisher's office.
     
  5. Den1983

    Den1983 Active Member

    This is true, but in our case those who make the most noise around the newsroom are BSin' 90 percent of the time.
     
  6. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    True that, crimson. Perfectly good product. But that room really needed some hijinks, or just a good once-a-month scream from someone.

    Don't ask me how, but I do think a fun, vibrant, even combative newsroom reflects itself in better stories and pages.
     
  7. Liut

    Liut Well-Known Member

    Lord help the reporter who shares a "newsroom" with a front desk of bitchy, loud-mouthed, gossipy women.
     
  8. Monday Morning Sportswriter

    Monday Morning Sportswriter Well-Known Member

    I once worked in a completely open office -- only the publisher, comptroller and systems guy had private offices, everyone else was in one giant room. It wasn't bad at all. And it was great to get to know people in other departments.
     
  9. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Sgreenwell, without even a hint of criticism of you, I weep for my beloved business that "a news editor who demands ... silence" and other parts of this are something anybody would even consider being good in a newsroom.
     
  10. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    It's like anything else -- a grey area. Sure, we loved a feeling of controlled chaos in the newsroom. And having somebody sit there as "noise police" is irritating. But so is being on the phone with a source and having two idiots going back and forth loudly three cubicles away.
     
  11. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Shottie, I see what you're saying, but I recall that back in the stone age, we managed to make it work without everybody sitting like a bunch of actuaries calculating sinkhole risks to the 15th decimal point.
     
  12. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Some people are bothered by noise when they work or write. I've seen guys in press boxes who shoot dirty looks at folks talking in a normal voice while they're batting out a story on deadline.

    I've always been able to block the noise out.

    I'd rather have some noise in the office. It's awkward to call you bookie when everyone in the place can hear.
     
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