The documentary is exciting and uses a direct cinema approach. This means that the camera is a fly on the wall and The Newsroom - Off the Record takes us right inside the hottest rooms of the tabloid's headquarters, which is probably why the film recalls classic influential documentaries such as War Room by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hedegus. The tension is palpable and the suspense as they try to make decisions and frustratedly try to figure out what the public wants is intense as well as exciting. Every now and again, in a human way, these factors also lead to somewhat comedic moments which flourish out of the restlessness and machinations with total genuineness and a hint of naivity.
The film even borderlines tragedy as a story of hostages in Somalia, which becomes the prime piece of investigative reporting adopted by Ekstra Bladet turns the wider public and the rest of the media even more against them. In other instances, interesting observations are made about what the people seem to want when the paper delves into the "exciting" and innovative world of internet press and unsurprisingly it is sex related storylines as well as exploitative investigative journalism and entertainment that get the most clicks. Thus, this is a documentary that indirectly points the cameras towards the viewers and the outcomes are quite worrying. But mostly, this behind the scenes look at the world of journalism rids the cinematic conventions of the glamour that comes with it and even dares to restructure the viewer's perception of press people as working people, salesmen and terribly ordinary.
In the end, the prime observation is how news has to be dumbed down in order to be sold. A meeting with the giants of the Huffington Post reveals that people need to see them as a community platform more than an informative one. On top of that, glimpses of calls from readers' complaints provide and entertaining dash of satire in a feature that already brims with it naturally and without tampering. And as sales of the newspaper continue to drop despite continous efforts and work, it is hard not to feel for Poul and his disciples, in their representation of media mediocrity. They are underdogs. In a way, The Newsroom - Off the Record also represents a fascinating juxtaposition in the one between printed press and media, both struggling with fall in popularity and counteractive innovations. Shamefully, however, it must be noted that one of the first things taken off in the paper when things start looking back towards the beginning are the cinema listings.
