The Globe’s Office Space Is Super Hipster

A Sunday New York Times story highlighted the hip, creative ways The Boston Globe is using the extra office space freed up by decades of dwindling newspaper staffers. The story is like one big silver lining amidst the larger, more depressing set-piece of the state of the newspaper business. (That’s summed by the depressing point made early in the article: “While most newspapers lack cash, employees and a clear strategy for finding greater profits in the digital age, they do not lack for office space.”) Happily, the article focuses in on that latter point.

So how is the Globe utilizing the “particularly unattractive section of the newsroom” filled with the abandoned desks of erstwhile payroll, classified and advertising employees? They’re lending it out to tech startups, bands who perform for the Globe‘s RadioBDC station, and special events like coding marathons and beer tastings. For these efforts, New York magazine has deemed them “hipsters.” Makes sense, because cash, employees, and clear strategies for finding greater profits in the digital age are, like, sooo mainstream.