The newsroom. Nobody asked me, but that’s my vote for the world’s best workplace. Call it sentimental, but special things happen in newsrooms, my work home for the last 42 years.
I’ll explain, but first a definition.
From where I sit right now, inside the second floor of The Republican’s 1860 Main St. headquarters, the newsroom before me is the sprawling, open space where reporters, photographers, editors, copy editors and page designers do all it takes to publish the equivalent of a small book every day.
Or today, with Outlook 2025, a hefty one.
People walking through our newsroom, on their way to other departments, might think it just another office. And so it might look. People make phone calls, write in notebooks and tap away at keyboards.
Yes, but.
What makes the newsroom special is the mission and the method. Our daily work and mission are protected by the First Amendment: newsgathering in the public interest. The best newsrooms use that call to duty to empower reporters and editors to dig, dig, dig.
Reporter Namu Sampath conducts an interview in The Republican’s newsroom. (Larry Parnass / The Republican)Staff
People who work in newsrooms are the beating heart of a newspaper. Day by day, they help readers understand developments in public life that they won’t see on TikTok. They unearth secrets and conflicts, believing the light of day compels local governments, organizations and businesses to do better. They bring overlooked voices into the conversation. They celebrate local heroes.
They put into words and images the things you need to know about the place you live.
While all teams need leaders, the best newspapers I have worked for (six in three states) give their people a lot of free rein.
In these newsrooms, people come to work and set their curiosity loose. They ask questions of anyone and everyone. “The man” isn’t a figure in the corner office; our job is to unmask the clowns, not worship them.
You don’t get that freedom in many workplaces. In lots of jobs, you must toe a company line. Newsrooms aren’t entirely protected from that, but our calling is to put readers’ needs first. Producing ethical and purposeful journalism is everything.
Leaders of the best newsrooms expect to be quizzed and second-guessed. They want their reporters to be fearless out in the community and push for answers. Journalists must be bold, skeptical and independent people.
Leaders need these folks to be their authentic selves when they come back to the newsroom. Every reasonable question must be welcome.
Despite all the challenges facing newspapers, The Republican still makes money. We’ve had to cut costs like everyone else in this business and that has reduced the size of our newsroom. The loss of talented colleagues hurts, but those who remain keep at it, together.
To survive, many newspapers, including The Hartford Courant, have opted to close their newsrooms, asking staff to work at home or in some overpriced cafe, while selling off real estate. That’s a dismal development that leaves the secret sauce of newsroom cohesion moldering in the jar.
Everything is better in person. To gather and test ideas, you can’t beat talking face to face. It is why our big newsroom, in a building erected more than 50 years ago, is wide open — long before other offices adopted this work environment.
Ashley Potter, features editor at The Republican, and Paul Swan, a copy editor and page designer, in the newsroom at The Republican. (Larry Parnass / The Republican)Staff
Because the work is frenetic and tricky, steam must be released. Newsrooms are literally writer’s rooms, though the jokes we trade with each other (Jim Kinney, I’m thinking of you) don’t get broadcast. In the best newsrooms, we laugh a lot.
Speaking of clowns, great newsrooms are a kind of civilized circus. Reporting and editing controversial stories can be a high-wire act. You want it to look easy, but it’s not. Pulling off a difficult interview demands preparation and savvy communication.
And our storytelling, because news coverage must be quickly understood, requires a practiced hand ― and lots of drafts.
It’s hard but real work that liberates the mind. And it happens every day in the newsroom.
Larry Parnass is the executive editor of The Republican.
