Greg Daniels and Michael Koman opened up to TheWrap about how their decision to build a newsroom full of non-journalists in “The Paper” is rooted in their own long, lost love of the profession.
“I think anybody who likes to write has fantasized at some point about being a journalist,” Koman said. “To me, it’s like writing but with real life stakes.”
The show, which is a spinoff of Daniel’s American version of “The Office,” is centered on a failing Ohio-based newspaper called The Toledo Truth Teller. However, the team that makes up that newsroom isn’t anything close to a hard-hitting group of reputable journalists.
Their best of the best is Mare (Chelsea Frei), a compositor who’s main job is assembling outsourced reporting for their newspaper; Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore), the TTT’s quirky blogger managing editor who’s eye for news is limited to Ben Affleck’s tipping habits; and Nicole (Ramona Young), who keeps track of the newspaper’s subscribers, among other duties. Truly, their only actual reporter is Barry (Duane Shepard Sr.), but his old age and poor memory disqualifies his veteran knowledge of journalism. It isn’t until Ned Sampson, the TTT’s newest editor-in-chief, who comes with a journalism degree tucked, takes the reigns to reconstruct the once thriving paper.
But that’s the core of what makes “The Paper” funny, it’s a newsroom with no actual journalists who are trying to tell stories. And that’s how Daniels would describe he and Koman.
“That’s a bit us trying to be in journalism,” Daniels said, mentioning that he used to write for his college newspaper and has since become fascinated with his daughter’s journalism pursuits.
“I spent some time hanging out in her journalism class and her excitement over the idea that she can ask questions of the administrators and then write something up and maybe slip a little joke in or whatever, show some of her personality, it’s very exciting for her,” Daniels said, adding that that sentiment helped breathe life into the idea behind “The Paper.”
“If you wanted to do a workplace where they start off kind of dispirited, but they start to get some joy in their actual jobs, I felt like that was a good place where a normal person could be like, ‘I wrote a funny thing and everybody looked at me and they read it in a paper, and I got some feedback,’” he explained.
Koman added that one of the aspects of journalism that he admires most is that it often brings a new experience every day through reporting.
“There’s adventures to go on, and there are people who are going to be angry with you and [there are] actual positive consequences to the work that you put [into] the world,” Koman said. “So I think that’s something that I just romanticized my whole life.”
“It’s an excuse to be curious about people, and your job is different every day,” Daniels chimed in. “You don’t know who you’re going to talk to. I mean, it’s a great job. Yeah, I learned apart from the obvious downsides of security.”
All 10 episodes of “The Paper” are now streaming on Peacock.
