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“We wanted more light and less vermin.”
Executive Editor David Shribman was blunt about why he needed to move his agents out of the historic offices of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, breadth journalism had been accomplished aback 1927.
For some newsrooms, relocation or new construction offers the best solution to several types of problems, whether it’s dealing with a newsroom emptied from rounds of layoffs, making room for future growth, or creating a workspace tailored for new digital practice. For the Post-Gazette, it was a way to walk away from the past and not look back.
“We had the worst newsroom in history — old building, no windows, divided up into little warrens because of weight-bearing walls,” Shribman said. “It wasn’t conducive to anything. Ugly, dirty, depressing.”
A glimpse aback in time: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s celebrated newsroom as it appeared in 1957, back it housed the Pittsburgh Press. (Photo address of the Pittsburgh-Post-Gazette)
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newsroom about 2001. (Photo by J. Monroe Butler II)
Moving also made economic sense. Besides defective to replace the paper’s “antediluvian presses,” Shribman recognized the value of the real estate on the banks of the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh.
“We were sitting on the best piece of land in Pittsburgh,” he said, “and we felt we could make some money by selling it.”
Robyn Tomlin, managing editor of The Dallas Morning News, had a similar opportunity. The company could invest in the newsroom’s future by moving from a historic building in a prime city location — and absolution go of about $1 actor in ceremony aliment expenses.
The Dallas Morning Account agents aggregate for a accumulation photo in advanced of the acclaimed “Rock of Truth” in April 2017 to mark the 175th ceremony of ancestor aggregation A.H. Belo, called for the architect of The Dallas Morning News. (Photo by Evans Caglage)
“We have been in the same building since the 1940s, a wonderful downtown building with a lot of history tied to it,” Tomlin said. The building’s signature feature is a three-story-tall inscription chiseled into its bean facade, accepted as the “rock of truth.”
Like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the News needed to distance itself psychologically from the past and its “crazy little hovels and hallways” as it transitions to a new way of practicing journalism.
Staff are advancing for their move-in this fall, while the new amplitude is actuality renovated. In the accepted building, “it feels like you’re walking into the 1940s when you walk in here,” Tomlin said. Although the inscription on the building still reflected the important work activity on inside — “Build the account aloft the bedrock of accuracy and righteousness” — the rest of the building did not.
Dallas Morning Account reporters (clockwise from basal left) Cary Aspinwall, Sarah Mervosh, Sue Ambrose and Terri Langford assignment in the accepted newsroom in conventional, but dated, anteroom spaces. (Photo by Irwin Thompson)
But a account alignment charge not move to innovate its space. For many, it makes faculty to break put and brighten the space, but additionally adapt appliance and accommodate teams to reflect new means of working. For the agents of Treasure Coast News, the architecture and breadth abreast city Stuart, Florida, were fine. They chose to brace their newsroom architecture as they confused to digital-first publishing.
Each of the media organizations interviewed for this abstraction had its own, right-sized access to renovating its newsroom — from small, DIY efforts that started with a can of beginning acrylic to busy architectural solutions that re-envisioned the newsroom from the arena up. Although the solutions assorted in scope, several capacity emerged as newsroom leaders abundant their aggregate adventure to reboot concrete amplitude for agenda practice.
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First thing, you need a goal. What are you trying to achieve?
“We had a vision of having our newsroom on one floor,” Washington Post Deputy Managing Editor Tracy Grant said of Editor Marty Baron’s goal to unify the newsroom.
But no building in Washington, D.C., offered a footprint large enough for the Post’s robust, growing staff to reside on one floor. They saw an opportunity at 1 Franklin Square, nicknamed the “Batman building” because of its two towers like Batman’s ears.
The Washington Post’s new home at 1 Franklin Aboveboard is alone three blocks from its antecedent location. A key agency in allotment this breadth was that it’s aural walking ambit of the White House. The two-floor newsroom spans 400 anxiety on the top two floors amid the east and west towers. (Photo by Matt McClain for The Washington Post)
“We blew through the walls to connect the east and west towers,” said Grant, which coalesced 111,000 square feet of real estate across the seventh and eighth floors into a newsroom that spans three quarters of a block.
A centralized, two-story-tall alteration “hub” is the nerve center of the newsroom. Open and vibrant, it’s an elegant design concession to the division of labor across two floors, alms accessible passage and ablaze angle from one attic to another. Affective the editing hub to the center of the newsroom connects teams and activities from beyond the alignment and emphasizes the Post’s silo-busting and agenda focus.
A account alignment as ample as The Washington Post can’t fit its absolute beat agents on one floor. To accomplish it easier for agents to move amid the two floors of the newsroom, architects congenital stairs into the axial design. (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
In adverse to the Post, Quartz was a startup aural an earlier company, Atlantic Media. It had rapidly outgrown its open-floor newsroom and was ready to move to its third location in New York City in as many years. Its staff had grown from 36 in 2014 to 151 and counting. While some advisers are in alien locations as allotment of a all-around team, the amplitude bare for the agents in New York had tripled.
Zach Seward, executive editor and senior vice president of product, sought a space that would accommodate his growing team and maintain its open layout. He settled on the fourth floor of 675 Avenue of the Americas in the Flatiron District.
Seward was able to keep his team on one floor — for now. “I rue the day when we will have to be on more than one,” he said.
At The Virginian-Pilot the charge was contraction, not growth.
In 2016, “we closed our bureaus and decided to be one happy family,” said Rachel Jones, news operations team leader for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. Jones reorganized the newsroom with a digital-first focus. Some administrative positions were cut to accomplish room for digital hires.
“We knew we had to change our way of thinking, our way of selling, how we handle everything we do as a company,” Jones said. That included revamping the newsroom.
“We were going to build new offices,” she said. “We couldn’t afford it.” Instead, she used imagination, creative layouts, new furniture and some bright colors to consolidate and inspire the newsroom.
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We’re going from an organization that had a lot of offices to one that has three offices.
Staff dropped from 300 to 100 back the aggregation alone its bureaus. Even so, Jones said, part of the challenge became, “how are we going to put all of these folks in one place?”
The Dallas Morning News is condensing its 400,000 square-foot operation into a more efficient layout of 100,000 square feet that favors multipurpose, communal space over private offices. The newsroom is now advance across three floors. The new one in addition celebrated architecture will be on two floors, with an open layout and a mezzanine.
“We’re going from an organization that had a lot of offices to one that has three offices,” Tomlin said.
Without the charge for so abundant aboveboard footage adherent to press presses, a cable news network and all those offices, the new amplitude will affection a added able agenda newsroom with an integrated TV studio, one “built with intention instead of crammed into a corner.”
It’s no surprise that a window view improves employee satisfaction. But research by architectural close RDG Planning & Design addendum that even employees who did not accept their own windows acquainted higher job satisfaction and perceived they were closer to windows back accustomed ablaze diffused throughout the space.
As The Kansas City Star rethinks their newsroom design, “we want to make sure no one ‘owns’ the windows,” said Greg Branson, an assistant managing editor who leads presentation and innovation.
The Washington Post put a premium on natural light and found it to be one of the most satisfying features of its new location. The open layout and banks of windows allow sunlight to filter through glass-walled walkways into the newsroom’s central hub.
“Most people were gobsmacked by how light and bright everything was,” Grant said.
The Washington Post’s old newsroom had little ablaze and was a coil of desks that inhibited collaboration. Washington Post Deputy Managing Editor Tracy Grant said the new amplitude was advised to facilitate quick advice and accord during breaking account — and to “get rid of annihilation that got in the way of acceptable journalism.” (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
Spanning two stories, the axial alteration hub is the assumption centermost of The Washington Post. Advised for afterimage and accessibility, the bright, accessible amplitude capitalizes on accustomed ablaze and enables ablaze angle into the hub from glass-walled walkways on the high floor. (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
Some account outlets saw that their employees, advised bottomward by circuit of buyouts, bare a altered blazon of light.
“We’re a company in a financially distressed industry trying to find some oxygen,” said Shribman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. For him, added ablaze in a new, accessible amplitude conveyed optimism and a way to face the future.
All editors interviewed for this study expressed concern for employee morale. They recognize the toll that economic uncertainty and continuing technological change have taken on employees. (This concern reflects the sort of empathy evangelized by proponents of human-centered design, discussed in “Engaging staff: User experience studies are not just for audience behavior.”)
Michael Hughes is senior manager of media design and production for Calkins Digital Solutions, which publishes the Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times and The Intelligencer in Pennsylvania and was afresh purchased by Gatehouse Media. For the company’s recent remodel at the Courier Times’ building, Hughes studied which paint schemes would create a welcoming environment.
Michael Hughes, senior manager of media design and production for Calkins Digital Solutions, adapted the newsroom of the Bucks County Courier Times in stages. This photo, taken while the advance was underway, shows the blush scheme, which transitions from shades of dejected to green. (Photo address of Jacki Gray and Michael Hughes)
“If I’m going to do things that affect people’s lives, I wanted to be sure I was doing the right thing,” Hughes said. He chose shades of blue and green for the company’s production and newsroom spaces. The aggregation also devoted a 25-foot wall to an inspirational message.
The adorning bank decal and anxiously called bank colors advice accomplish the amplitude affable and adequate for staff. Bank decals like this are almost inexpensive, accessible to install and can be begin on Etsy from a array of vendors. (Photos address of Jacki Gray and Michael Hughes)
“The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” by Marie Kondo, perhaps best represents the current cult of minimalism sweeping homes — and offices — around the globe. At the heart of this aesthetics is an almost spiritual letting-go of the past.
“The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past,” writes Kondo.
Substitute “newsroom” for “person,” and you have a mandate: Tidy up to make way for future means of accomplishing journalism.
“What an amazing metaphor for moving from print to digital,” said Jones, who guided The Virginian-Pilot through that transition. “Every single print record for which there was a digital copy was shredded.” In a budget-conscious adventure for apple-pie curve and minimalism, Jones decided at the outset, “We’re going to paint, and we’re going to declutter.”
Rachel Jones, news operations leader for The Virginian-Pilot, aimed for a minimalist attending back she oversaw its newsroom renovation. She chose a crisp, white blush for portions of the new space. Something as simple as photographs throughout, army in atramentous frames with gallery-style white matting, advice actualize a unified look. (Photo by The’ N. pham)
Before the renovation, the editor’s office was walled in by cabinets. They were the first thing that had to go.
The Virginian-Pilot’s old photo administration was apparent by anachronous furniture, added book cabinets and debris of the old blush scheme. This breadth was adapted to a accumulator allowance as the photo aggregation confused afterpiece to the blow of the staff. (Photo by The’ N. pham)
“But it’s hard,” she conceded. “People don’t want to part with their stuff.” At first, Jones said, she started with an email about decluttering, but she soon realized she had to be more assertive.
“I brought in huge Dumpsters,” she said, “and people realized, ‘Oh, they’re serious.’” She set deadlines and told the agents everything that wasn’t sorted by a certain date would go into the bins.
Each employee at The Washington Post was given two orange crates. What didn’t fit had to be shredded, thrown away or taken home by moving day.
Staff at The Washington Post were guided through a year of decluttering. Posters were adapted account to calculation bottomward to affective day, suggesting “three things you can do this week” to prepare. “As the numbers got smaller, the coercion got higher,” said the Post’s Tracy Grant. Bodies had to adjudge what to scan, shred, bandy abroad or booty home. (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
As a concession to the distress of letting go, The Virginian-Pilot allotted one storage room with a limited number of cabinets where people could store items they just couldn’t bring themselves to discard.
“Not one person has gone back and looked at their stuff in the storage room,” Jones said with a laugh.
The final, clutter-free comatose abode for The Virginian-Pilot’s few actual book files. (Photo by The’ N. pham)
At the Centermost for Investigative Reporting, “the model for our journalism is based on collaboration,” said Christa Scharfenberg, managing director and head of studio. “Half of our content is created by us; the other half is from newsrooms across the country, so communal space is key to getting the job done.”
The nonprofit’s new location, a repurposed pipe factory, has an open newsroom the size of a football field. That’s a stark contrast to its prior home in downtown Berkeley, where staff was scattered across three floors and “squirreled away in a little room in the basement.”
The new space better supports the organization’s collegial culture. “We have a communal kitchen space in the middle of our newsroom; we call it Cozy Town,” Scharfenberg said. Cozy Town serves as an advantageous amplitude to adhere out, assignment in teams, and to for breezy food and coffee clubs to meet.
Architects advance these sorts of common spaces can accompany calm bodies who don’t assignment on the aforementioned team, creating new access and sparking breezy collaborations.
The Centermost for Investigative Reporting’s common space, nicknamed “Cozy Town,” is acclimated for amusing gatherings, aliment clubs, alive lunches and blemish meetings. (Photo by Rachel de Leon)
Another simple affection auspicious accord is that the newsroom radiates around the hangout space and is organized into sections instead of continued rows. Scharfenberg said this blueprint enables bodies to accept quick conversations with added teams nearby.
That’s a account of the Post’s accommodation to adapt its newsroom about the alteration hub.
“In the old building, going to the hub was a tortuous process. Now moving between [floors] seven and eight is seamless,” Grant said. “Everyone has equal access … you can yell down to the hub.”
At Treasure Coast News, a simple change three years ago created communal space at the heart of the newsroom and signaled the organization’s goal to collaborate. Editorial meetings once held in a conference room now occur at a large table in the center of the open newsroom.
“No walls,” said Adam Neal, managing editor of Treasure Coast News and its website, TCPalm. “Now we hold all of our meetings right at that table, and if a reporter hears us talking about a story, they speak up and join in.”
Moving beat affairs out of a appointment allowance and into the centermost of Treasure Coast News’ newsroom invites agents captivation back planning stories. “When we allocution about a adventure in the average of the newsroom, instead of a absolute administrator with a reporter, now you accept a accumulation of bristles to six bodies who can accord feedback,” said Managing Editor Adam Neal. Agents accept an accessible allurement to appear any affair in this space. (Photo by Leah Voss)
At Quartz, one of the goals was to represent the news organization’s culture of analysis in a physical space — to create something “quartzy.” The newsroom’s display of this is more lo-fi than high-tech. Rather than wallpapering the newsroom with flashing screens, Quartz conveys its brand of innovation through human-centered space.
Modest wooden structures delineate creative spaces such as the workshop, which feels like a playroom for grownups and features a mix of maker tools and toys. A secret love of print manifests in a library featuring actual books. These areas express, without irony, the authentic culture of playful experimentation driving this young, digitally native publication.
Resident tinkerer, coding drillmaster and bot architect Sam Williams spends time in the Workshop, a amplitude that reflects Quartz’s different culture. Williams’ ancillary projects — such as a sensor that indicates back the appointment dishwasher is done or the coffee bot that alerts agents via Slack back a beginning cup of coffee is accessible — advice Quartz analyze applications for new technologies. (Photo by Mark Craemer)
To antithesis amid abandoned and collaborative workspaces, every alignment in this analysis adopted its own adaptation of “huddle” spaces. In the Centermost for Investigative Reporting’s sprawling newsroom, they took the anatomy of closet-sized rooms.
At the Post, dozens of ataxia spaces, advised for two to four people, are broadcast throughout the newsroom. They’re busy with celebrated bi-weekly headlines.
The Washington Post’s new amplitude incorporates a cardinal of baby “huddle spaces” advised for ad-lib collaboration. Less academic than a appointment room, anniversary ataxia breadth has a different artful and artistic accoutrement to affect avant-garde thinking. (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
Elements of the Post’s history were artfully congenital into the new decor. In 1935, administrator Eugene Myers put alternating seven allegorical principles for the conduct of journalism at the Post. Now the aboriginal affair you see back you footfall off the elevator on the seventh attic is this aggregation of metal type, evocative of a ancient era. “We had a discussion about updating the language, but decided to keep it as originally uttered,” said the Post’s Tracy Grant. (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
“There was a deliberate attempt to say, ‘Here is everything we are and will be in the next century, and here is everything we were before,’” Grant said.
Diverse architecture elements bless The Washington Post’s history and achievements, such as this affected affectation of its Pulitzer Prizes. (Photo by Garrett Rowland)
