The New Yorker asks “What should a newsroom look like in the twenty-first century?” The article recounts the history of how newsrooms were designed around the needs of the printing process, and communication methods that did not include technology.
The article compares two New York newsrooms: the new offices of the New York Times, and Bloomberg L.P. In the end, the author favors that of Bloomberg, in which “…No one, not even the chairman and the chief executive, has a private office.”
As I walk by the offices of my local newspaper each morning, I can’t help but compare this paradigm, to that of online bloggers and journalists. There are many reasons for a media company to have a physical prescence and central offices, yet I am seeing more and more examples of news operations and journalism that exists free from these strucutures.
When I look at the list of top 100 blogs, I wonder how many have office space outside of someone’s home? For those that do (or will in the near future,) do they see a priority in having a name-brand architect design them; in adding a meaningful statement to the skyline of their city; or of showing their competion how great they are by comparing the size of their offices?
Or are they simply concerned with producing quality content, and creating a healthy business to fund it?