Yesterday was a historic moment in the future of the South African media landscape. The Times (the new daily paper going out free to Sunday Times subscribers) opened up its newsroom and we all moved into our brand-spanking new cubicles – since there are no offices.

The office layout is totally open-plan with journalists grouped into converged media “pods” – a completely new concept that we’re experimenting with and I think will be adopted elsewhere in the near future. Ray Hartley, the editor of The Times, opened up the morning’s proceedings with a very inspiring speech which basically made everyone bullish about the paper’s dedication to both multimedia and the Web (not something you hear everyday from the editor of a new print publication!!!).

I was supposed to say something about some of the features we have planned for the new site and other projects in the pipeline, but was whisked away by an uneasy project manager… always a next time I guess.

Some pics from the new newsroom:

A common scene at the moment

The Editor’s desk with no editor

Buzz