Not that readers should notice— unless they are old-fashioned enough to send their fan mail to The Scrapbook via the Postal Service—but The Weekly Standard moved its offices last week. This was not a protracted journey: Our new address is just a couple of blocks east of our old address in downtown Washington, and the transfer was accomplished over the Presidents’ Day weekend. Nor should any particular significance be attached to this event: The aging building in which we were located is to be demolished, and TWS and our fellow tenants have been obliged to find new homes.
We would not be entirely honest if we suggest this has come without cost. The Weekly Standard offices have been in the same place since we published our first issue in September 1995 and, after 20-plus years, we will miss the old quarters. But the new quarters are not far from the old neighborhood, and in a gleaming new office block with one unexpected amenity: From our office windows we now have a front-row seat for the ongoing demolition of the old Washington Post building next door.
The Scrapbook will resist the temptation to suggest that this is some sort of metaphor for the brave new world of journalism. But there will be something very satisfying about the spectacle unfolding before us during the next few months.
And of course, in the Internet age, the location of magazine offices is less pertinent than it used to be. It would, perhaps, be a little odd if, say, the New Yorker offices were someplace other than New York; yet, from a reader’s perspective, it makes little difference. The Atlantic, associated indelibly with Boston for a century-and-a-half, is now in Washington; Architectural Digest, which began in Los Angeles as a chronicle of West Coast building design, is now headquartered in Manhattan.
So, as we unpack our books, hang pictures, rearrange furniture, plot new commuting paths, and plug in the various devices essential to contemporary publishing, The Weekly Standard will continue to do what we’ve always done, and more so.
