Categories: OLD Media Moves

Herb Greenberg: I have the best seat in the house

CNBC senior reporter Herb Greenberg writes about where he sits in the business news network’s newsroom and the advantages it gives him.

Greenberg writes, “This is my desk at CNBC. It is hard not to be impressed with CNBC’s newsroom/studio, which is the size of an airplane hangar.

“Live TV is always happening. When I took this picture, my colleages Brian Sullivan and Mandy Drury were doing a live hit. The camera crew was off to my right. I have four computer screens and one TV screen. One screen is devoted entirely to my stocks monitor. Another is email. The other two are work screens with various (often way too many) web browser’s open. My chair is a HumanScale Freedom Chair — a version of the one I use at home. And my view is straight out — seeing everything that goes on in the newroom. If I turn my chair, everything that goes on during live TV. I’ve been known to scream toward the set during a live show if I disagree with something somebody says!

“Everybody has a TV or TVs at their desks and at times they’re all on. Or it sounds like they are. It’s noisy! Get over it! It’s a newsroom! And while I miss the quiet that comes with working at home, as I did for 10 years before joining CNBC, there is something to be said for the rapid exchange of ideas in a newsroom that is focused real-time, immediate dissemination. One minute I’m at my desk focusing on something unrelated to the news; the next I could be in front of a camera breaking news. The downside of my space is no natural light, just florescent lights mixed with bright LEDs. Think of it like a movie theater with the lights on! And that probably is the only change I would make: A desk with a view. But then I’d miss being in the mix and having what I consider to be the best seat in the house!”