‘… Something happening here’

Phil Cobb

As Buffalo Springfield sang in 1966 in their song, “For What It’s Worth” … “There’s something happening here.”

If you’ve visited our office lately, you might have thought, “It ain’t exactly clear.”

Admittedly, we haven’t done the best job of letting you know what we’ve been doing here at 111 E. Jenkins for the past four-plus months.

We have on numerous occasions posted a sign on the door, asking visitors to “please use the other door.”

But through the course of construction, those signs have disappeared a couple of times, only to be replaced, only to disappear again.

Many of you have gone in the “old” way anyway, only to find that nobody’s home.

Most of you have figured out that you need to enter through the newly created “temporary” entrance, located just east of the old — original — permanent — entrance.

I fear that at least some of you might not have thought to try the other door, and went away scratching your head.

Well, I think it’s about time I let you in on our little secret.

Several months ago, I made a decision that if we are in this newspaper thing for the long haul, we need a better — nicer — cleaner — newer — place to work.

Many of the building’s features at least appeared to be original to its early 1970s origin.

The ceiling tiles were old and stained and dingy looking.

So was the carpet.

So were the floor tiles.

So were the bathrooms.

You get the picture.

The light fixtures half worked … on a good day.

The insulation … oh, that’s right, there was no insulation, at least not enough to amount to much.

And former publisher Kelly Freudensprung, God bless his soul, had painted the interior walls with the most dull, drab, flat colors he could find — about 17 years ago.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the most pleasant place to come to work.

And let’s face it, the way we make a newspaper in 2016 is much, much different than the way it was done in the early 1970s.

When I used to tag along with my dad in the mid-70s, you could have observed every square foot of this building being put to some sort of use.

Those were the good old days, when every necessary function took place right here inside this facility.

We remember those days with fondness, but they are gone.

We were really only utilizing maybe a third of the 7,000-or-so square feet available.

We knew that if we were going to launch the type of remodeling effort necessary to bring this building into this century, we would have to move out.

But, instead of moving somewhere else, and paying rent to someone else, and confusing our customers even more, we decided to finish off a portion of the building that we weren’t using anyway, and move in there temporarily.

There have been a few inconveniences for sure, but as I mentioned earlier, our staff has become accustomed to working in less-than-ideal conditions.

I’d say we’re about three weeks away from moving back into the permanent digs.

We are all very much looking forward to it.

It will be great.

Hopefully, we have done a good job of laying out the floor plan to be more conducive to making a newspaper in 2016.

We hope to have created a better workflow for our employees, including better lines of communication, and better synergy among individuals within each department, as well as between those departments.

There will be a new kitchen area and a breakroom, as well.

And the old bathrooms have been completely replaced with newer, nicer, larger ones.

But beyond that, we hope we have created a place that our customers want to come to and be a part of what is going on inside.

The entrance to the building has been dramatically improved, with a handicap accessible ramp and railing, and a much easier opening front door.

We have created a room specifically designated for interviews.

I have jokingly referred to it as the “interrogation room,” but really the main purpose is to give reporters a quiet place to conduct interviews, separated from the commotion of a busy — and sometimes noisy — office environment.

We have also created a space designated as an “archive room” where readers can thumb through old editions of the Maryville Daily Forum to conduct research.

Another feature of the new office I’m excited about is a completely new conference room.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not big on meetings, but this space should be perfect for the meetings we do have.

We also hope that other small groups will also take advantage of that space for their own meetings.

We look forward to inviting you all to come check out our new investment when you get the chance.

We plan to have an open house and a grand re-opening-type event sometime in the near future.

Or, feel free to stop in and ask for The Grand Tour.