Newspaper building design and journalism cultures in Australia and the UK, 1855-2010

Because of rapid change in journalism, mostly caused by digital technology, the newsroom appears to be becoming obsolete. The book is, in part, a response to the increasing scrutiny of journalism and the framework of general distrust in which the profession finds itself. It examines what journalism may be losing in shifting professional practice out of the newsroom and what, if anything, can replace it. Rich in building details and anecdotes from journalists’ working lives, the book addresses the question of where newspaper buildings came from, how they developed and whether they are dying. We are interested in how the spatial characteristics of the newsroom impact on the journalists’ job. We draw on ancillary factors also such as the influence of the newspapers’ owners on the building design and the financing of the new structures (which was often linked to or contingent upon the commercial success of the newspaper). The significance of this book lies in not only filling a gap in the current body of knowledge, but also in the fact that professional practice is rapidly moving out of the newsroom and into the home office. A book of this nature is becoming increasingly urgent to explore what the industry may be losing as a consequence of the newsroom’s extinction