''How important journalism is'': The Paper co-creator reveals the inspiration behind The Office spin-off series

Newspapers form the heartbeat of The Paper, and every nook and cranny of the series is filled with the nostalgic sight of these yellow pages that once held a revered place in society. The opening credits of The Office spin-off quickly establish newspapers as objects of ridicule. They are scattered on streets, used as a spot for dogs to urinate, and repurposed by local vendors to wrap their food.

This sets the tone for Greg Daniels and Michael Koman's comedy series, which premiered on Peacock on September 4, 2025. The Office spin-off follows the same documentary crew that earlier immortalized Dunder Mifflin, who have now moved to a different set of people, a struggling newspaper called Toledo Truth Teller.

In an interview with The Star, co-creator Koman revealed that The Paper is essentially created to shine a light on the art of true journalism, which has lost its essence after the emergence of the Internet:

''You get a better appreciation for how important journalism is. I think newspapers, especially local ones, sometimes they’re like insurance...something that it’s very easy to overlook how much you need it until you wish it was there. What’s nice is that it’s something worth fighting for.”

More on this in our story.

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The Paper co-creators open up about the inspiration behind the spin-off series

With the emergence of tech companies, which Daniels calls 'economic forces', newspapers have been hollowed out and journalism has taken a new form. With this changing media scenario, The Office spin-off series follows struggling Toledo Truth Teller, a Midwestern newspaper that is stripped of its glory days.

In an interview, Greg Daniels revealed that the idea behind The Paper came from ghost newspapers. These publications refer to newspapers that only exist in name, but do not contribute anything substantial to the world of journalism.

Like the Toledo Truth Teller, they publish regularly but do not cover anything substantial or follow local news coverage. As seen in The Paper Pilot, these newspapers often turn into shells of their once-proud selves, their front pages cluttered with recycled content and stories, offering little in the way of groundbreaking journalism.

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The Paper is a story of survival

With this premise to restore a Midwestern newspaper to its glory, Daniels and Koman hunted for their protagonist, who would become the new editor-in-chief of the Toledo Truth-Teller. In an interview with The Star, Daniels described this journalist-cum-saviour figure as:

“A very idealistic guy comes in and says, ‘No we wanna cover our community, we’re gonna have original content, we’re gonna have different beats.’'

Actor Domhnall Gleeson, who plays the role of Ned Sampson, filled the heavy shoes of The Paper's protagonist, whose character is given this mammoth task. However, in addition to the already difficult task, Ned faces many more challenges in his way, namely, reporters.

While reporters are the lifeline of any publication, the company refuses to pay for them. This forces Ned to train citizens to be journalists, and the people selling ads and doing other jobs are trained to work a few hours a day as journalists. This is highly reminiscent of The Office, where the employees essentially worked as a team, a theme absent from its spin-off, until Ned's arrival.

Thus, with Ned's efforts and his determined attitude, he sets out to change the face of the newspaper, and the comedy series takes a different approach than its predecessor, becoming a survival story.

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A team of misfits

Another challenging aspect for Ned Sampson is that the world he is about to enter in The Paper is different and new to him. While our editor-in-chief worked as an editor on his college newspaper, he has no real experience in journalism. What's more hilarious is that he is tasked with a group of equally clueless individuals who work in a publication, but have no real knowledge about newspapers.

However, Ned is determined to make his team of misfits, including the paper's compositor Mare, ad salesman Detrick, accountants Adam & Barry, and the head accountant (and the only The Office alum) Oscar, work together and restore the Toledo Truth Teller to its glory.

But the real question is, did Ned and his team succeed? Tune into The Paper on Peacock to find out.

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