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Seating area of the fourth floor events space. Visible
at left are arched windows in the restored façade of
the historic Almas Temple, which was moved and
incorporated into the base building that houses
The Washington Post.

“Media totems” in the fourth floor events space, including television screens
that show images customized to specific events.

Hub and Story Conference Room directly abut newsroom workstation central importance are also edited in the traditional sense of
areas, conveying the message that these core functions may be the word: fact-checked, reviewed for stylistic cohesion and
special and vital, but they are integrally connected, both physically completeness, and so forth.
in the suite layout and functionally to the rest of the newsroom. That this is a glass-enclosed room is not merely a stylistic
The Hub’s configuration allows the editors to access, efficiently gesture or even a literal indication of the “transparency” that is
and ergonomically, a vast array of information needed to sustain a so central to the Post’s corporate values. Direct line of sight to the
constant flow of editorial decisions, and to confer easily with one Hub is functionally vital, as crucial metrics are constantly shifting.
another. Adjacent to the Hub is the glassed-in Story Conference Other sides of the room look to the newsroom operations—its
Room, where a leadership team, including top editors and others, desks, screens, meeting rooms, and so forth—and to the walls with
meets twice a day to review finalized drafts of stories assigned the historic front pages and the inspirational Bradlee quotation.
from the Hub. This group determines placement of the top stories Another well-known Bradlee quote holds that the “News is the
in the various media platforms of the Post. It is here that stories of first draft of history,” and it is not an exaggeration to say that this

DEMOCRACY LIVES IN LIGHT 59