"News Tower" Game: Hard Lessons in Managing an Ethical Newspaper

Introduction to the Challenging World of "News Tower"

"News Tower": proves that good journalism is no game. The simulation game "News Tower", which embodies newspaper management during the 1930s, offers difficult lessons on how to run a good and ethical newspaper amidst the challenges of the era. The game starts with a player inheriting a struggling newspaper and striving to transform it into New York's premier news destination. Players must manage everything, from keeping the lights on and operational costs to keeping reporters happy, while facing pressure from rival newspapers, gang interventions, lawsuits, and combating the spread of fake and outdated news.

The Importance of Employee Happiness in "News Tower"

Employee happiness: is a crucial part of your main job in "News Tower". Their happiness is affected by smells, loud noise, heat, and a lack of a sense of purpose, leading to slow and inaccurate work. These annoyances can be alleviated by building office walls, installing fans, and generally making the workplace a good environment. Initially, I was confused because some of my employees were unhappy despite each having their own private office. The situation only improved when I started adding small touches like plants, clocks, and decorative wallpaper – elements not directly related to increasing their skills or eliminating distractions.

Immersive and Enjoyable Gameplay Experience

I love this game: This little game, not only because of the rarity of a game that caters to my specific profession, but also because management simulation games can be boring, especially if most of the gameplay involves reading texts and lists. But "News Tower" makes you feel like a god playing with puppets, not spreadsheets. Employees wander across the screen, filing reports and fixing malfunctions with a charming, puppet-like animation. Your news tower responds as you build it, with lightbulbs jingling and dust clouds rising every time you move walls. And when it's time to print, you have to pull a big switch that makes a satisfying, tactile "ka-thunk" sound. Even the soundtrack enhances immersion, with iconic big band drum fills playing as your newspaper whizzes through the presses just like in animated movies.

A Journalist's Challenges in the World of "News Tower"

"News Tower" surprised me: as a journalist in ways I should have anticipated but wasn't prepared for. I entered this experience aiming to play it as realistically as possible, believing my skills would easily and quickly translate into success. But so far, I've bankrupted my newspaper, "The Star," on three separate occasions. Each week, a news agency agent brings stories you can assign to your reporters. You choose which stories to pursue based on multiple factors, including what readers in a specific area want, synergy with other stories you're working on, and your reporters' strengths.

Facing Factions and Ethical Pressures

Powerful factions: such as gangs, the mayor, and others, can also influence your decisions depending on whether you seek to please them or not. It's easy to say, as I did, "I'm an ethical journalist, and I won't let anyone dictate what I write about!" But this calculation quickly changes when gangs offer money to keep any crime stories off the newsroom floor, or when pleasing the mayor leads to favorable loan deals that I need to pay my reporters' wages. Although I never took money, I played along with different factions as long as their demands remained within what I considered ethically acceptable, mimicking the challenges faced by journalism in the 1930s when ethics were under pressure (Wikipedia). But like real life, money turned out to be my biggest challenge.

The Financial Dilemma and the Cost of Expansion

Skill level: Over time, the skill level of all your employees grows, requiring higher salaries. I could have replaced senior reporters with cheaper interns, but that would have slowed down the newspaper, and I had become accustomed to stories arriving on Thursdays and Fridays instead of the Sunday deadline. Paper was another source of ironic financial drain, as the cost and quality of paper were a significant challenge for the newspaper industry in the 1930s (Community History Archives). As my reporters improved and articles arrived faster, I had to expand "The Star" newspaper to two and three pages. So, even though I was breaking sales records and delighting readers with high-quality journalism, I was barely making a profit because the printing cost was prohibitively expensive. There was a point where I reached a happy equilibrium, with the newspaper profitable and having a good reputation and quality. But I felt some fear of missing out because "The Star" wasn't publishing higher quality stories due to the lack of a photographer. So, I took my ample profits and hired a photographer, believing that would solve my problem... but it made things worse. I didn't realize that a photographer who just takes pictures wouldn't be enough to get them on the page. I had to hire a developer and build a darkroom for them, then hire a chemical processor and build a special room for them because the smell of the chemicals affected employee morale. That single, ill-thought-out purchase, which aimed to chase new technology, turned into a cascade of expenses that ultimately led to my bankruptcy. Well, yes, there are definitely some metaphors here.

Conclusion: "News Tower" Lessons for Modern Journalism

I don't love "News Tower": because it's a professional compliment wrapped in a management simulation game. I love it because it honestly reveals why good journalism is so hard to find these days. Being a greedy opportunist will bring you money but not quality. Do it the right way, and "The Star" newspaper will be choked to death by larger, less ethical competitors. These difficulties were evident in the 1930s with the advent of radio as a threat to the traditional newspaper model, prompting the industry to seek new solutions like "Faxpaper" (Paleofuture, Medium). After numerous failures, I am currently playing a round where I expand as slowly and cost-effectively as possible without accepting any compliments, no matter what. I can see why Mr. Bezos does what he does; running an ethical newspaper is hard. I'll do it anyway.