Remember when the company updated the newsroom and added the area once known as “the sliver?”

I forget the year (not good on them), but the midsection of the third floor was a jungle of hanging plastic, aluminum studs, Sheetrock, plumbing, electrical wires and computer lines. The entire news origination operation (which at the time was very large) was jammed into the space now occupied by Features, overlooking the employee parking lot.

This upcoming transition to a combined TV and newspaper newsroom will create similar upheaval of the physical plant.  

The building will be swarming with workmen from here until October, when the company hopes to have the new HartFox or Courox or Foxford Video Combine up and running in time for sweeps.

According to Lori Skoglund, one of the most indispensable people in News, the relocation of offices began last week when Marketing moved from the third floor (where Business News used to be) to the second floor near pre-press. Business, which is currently where NE used to be overlooking I-84, will move back to its old place temporarily, then wind up in the main news room when everything is done.  The little conference room adjoining the old NE office will become the video editing area.

What is now the photo studio will be demolished, apparently. The labs are pretty much a waste of space anyway, since no one uses film anymore. A new studio will be built on the basement level, Lori says, “and should be operational by mid-June.”

I know from experience that upheaval like this is, bluntly, a pain in the ass; but I think the few remaining troops should welcome it. It’s hard to strike an emotional balance between awareness of the paper’s losses and mistakes and the possibilities for the future, but certainly there is an opportunity here for the bright minds of the staff to help shape what The Courant becomes. It would be a shame to waste it.