The Office
as we know will cease to exist in 5-10 years. There is no way it can not.
This post from David Kurtz (lawyer turned journo/blogger) of Talking Points Memo illustrates perfectly why this is the case:
As most of you know, we have a bricks-and-mortar office in Manhattan. But that's just the anchor for our operation. We have a reporter in DC, another reporter who works most of the week from Connecticut, and I'm in Missouri. So a third of our staff of nine is not based in the NYC office.
For that model to work, we rely some on phones, a lot on email, but primarily on Skype. That means a whole series of Skype chats going on at any one time between and among editors, reporters, and interns. Even most of the internal office interactions are via Skype, so that those of us not in the office proper can be kept in the loop.
. . .
As odd as all that may sound, one of the most out-of-the-box things about TPM was that until Wednesday, I had never met any of our staff in person, including Josh, even though I've worked at TPM in one capacity or another for approaching two years now, the last 10 months as managing editor.
That's pretty amazing. The "Josh" his post refers to of course is Josh Marshall, the founder of TPM. Some may find it odd that David or Josh would make such a significant decision (the decision to work together) without meeting one another. Others would find it odd that David can perform such a significant function at TPM without meeting the people he works with. But neither of these two things are really that odd at all. In fact, in this day and age, some would say that these types of things are becoming fairly typical.For that model to work, we rely some on phones, a lot on email, but primarily on Skype. That means a whole series of Skype chats going on at any one time between and among editors, reporters, and interns. Even most of the internal office interactions are via Skype, so that those of us not in the office proper can be kept in the loop.
. . .
As odd as all that may sound, one of the most out-of-the-box things about TPM was that until Wednesday, I had never met any of our staff in person, including Josh, even though I've worked at TPM in one capacity or another for approaching two years now, the last 10 months as managing editor.
I would estimate that I do not meet (in-person) over 50% of my clients prior to working with them. (I'm happy to do so, but in some instances, it just doesn't get around to happening.) In a couple of instances I have worked with the clients for between 6 months to a year before ever meeting them.
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