It’s not as hilarious as “The Office” but the spinoff series “The Paper” often hits its mark, painfully.
That was my take after watching several episodes of the new show, debuting Thursday on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, about a struggling Midwest newspaper.
Like “The Office,” it’s a deadpan workplace documentary.
The setup is that Dunder Mifflin, the setting of “The Office,” was sold to a corporation that owns the fictional Toledo Truth Teller newspaper. The newspaper’s skeleton staff shares a floor in its stately old building with a toilet paper company, a corporate sibling.
I probably shouldn’t pass judgment until I’ve watched the whole season. But the early episodes felt a little sad, probably because they are brutal about what’s been lost and challenges facing the Truth Teller.
Still, I’m hopeful that “The Paper” takes off. It could boost people’s interest in local newspapers.
Millions will watch the show and might appreciate why local papers are worth saving, if it doesn’t leave them thinking newspapers are silly and unprofessional.
Most will probably just enjoy the drama, echoes of “The Office” and the characters’ relationships. The latter picked up in the third episode, after the first two emphasized differences between the paper’s glory days in the 1970s and its shriveled state today.
Without being too preachy, “The Paper” captures the relentless cost-cutting of corporate newspaper owners, the loss of institutional knowledge in newsrooms and the idealism of those still pursuing a journalism career.
But in making those points, and weaving in messages about the importance of the work, it makes the show less funny than I was expecting. Maybe it’s hard to laugh when you’re wincing. I’m also prickly about jokes suggesting that newspaper stories are written by clueless reporters without standards, given the current climate.
NBC has already renewed “The Paper” for a second season, so it’s primed to have a bigger reach than the last network show about a cash-strapped newspaper, ABC’s “Alaska Daily.” It was more realistic, following a reporter investigating unsolved murders, and lasted only one season.
Most Americans don’t realize how dire the industry’s situation has become. A Pew Research Center survey last year found 63% believe local news is doing financially well and only 15% of respondents had paid for or donated to local news, a level that’s held steady since 2018.
Like most real-world local newspapers, the Toledo Truth Teller was cut to the bone and starved for resources as its business evaporated.
The first episode shows what the paper used to be like, through clips from a (mock) documentary in 1971 when it employed around 1,000 people, including 100 covering Ohio politics.
“Is it expensive? You can bet what you’re sitting on it is,” the 1971 publisher said.
“We only keep democracy alive is all. Is it worth it? Well, ask the Cincinnati City Council, a third of them indicted on bribery charges today, thanks to our reporting,” he said, holding up the day’s front page.
That seems like ancient history at the Truth Teller, which has just a single, sleepy old reporter left when an idealistic new editor arrives.
Figuring out how to report news and continue publishing the paper drives the plot. But stereotypical owners in suits appear rich, so the economic story is a little muddled.
The lead characters — equivalent to Pam and Jim in “The Office” — are the lone copy editor/page designer and the new editor-in-chief committed to saving the paper.
The managing editor is a buffoon, a la Michael Scott of “The Office.” She gushes about “TTT,” the paper’s online edition, “which is way more important and fun and sexy than the print version.”
In the pilot she shows off the website’s “classic long-form journalism” — an endlessly scrolling story headlined “You Won’t Believe How Much Ben Affleck Tipped His Limo Driver.”
The new editor’s proposal to hire reporters, restore the newsroom and revive the paper is rejected by corporate bean counters.
Instead, he invites employees from the business department to build an ad hoc, semi-volunteer newsroom.
It’s a fun storyline.
In the real world, though, a one-reporter newspaper wouldn’t have hardly any business staff left, either, and the newspaper’s building would have been sold off long ago.
Maybe I’m being a curmudgeon.
As I type this, I’m already looking forward to the rest of the season and hoping the motley crew turns things around for the Truth Teller.
Brier Dudley on Twitter: @BrierDudley is editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press Initiative. Its weekly newsletter: https://st.news/FreePressNewsletter. Reach him at bdudley@seattletimes.com.
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