'New York Observer Was Sluggish When I Got Here And Now It's Back On Track'

Last week, Elizabeth Spiers -- Gawker founder, Breaking Media founder, and currently editor-in-chief of the New York Observer -- posted a picture of the new workspace at her paper along with a caption reading "the new Obs bullpen is nearly done..."
Spiers, who started at her post in February, is the third editor at the small but influential publication -- this, invariably, is how the salmon-colored weekly is described -- since Peter Kaplan left in July, 2009.
During that period, morale sunk as editors battled publisher Christopher Barnes, the edit staff departed en masse, and owner Jared Kushner hemorrhaged cash.
So, the NYO under Spiers: A publication in need of renovation, just like the offices on 44th street.
Except the metaphor isn't that simple.
Sure, Spiers is recruiting new talent, launching verticals on the website, and redesigning the paper, but she also intends to return the Observer to the paper it was when she mimicked its tone during Gawker's early days.
"I feel like everybody was a little bit sluggish [when I arrived] because the paper had drifted into this territory that it wasn't quite what it used to be," she told The Wire on Thursday afternoon from her office where she can see the revamped bullpen through her glass doors. "I think everybody is happy that it's going back in the direction that it probably should have stayed on."