Diksha Sundriyal
Peacock’s ‘The Paper’ takes the audience into the heart of a local Midwestern newspaper called The Toledo Truth Teller. The paper, which once used to be of great significance, locally as well as nationally, is now dying. Even the people who work for it know it. But this changes with the arrival of Ned Sampson, a new editor-in-chief who is hell-bent on turning things around for the newspaper. While The Truth Teller is at the heart of the story, there is another office that functions right beside it. It’s called Softees, and it plays a significant role in the show. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Fictional Softees Serves as a Contrast to The Toledo Truth Teller
Before we are introduced to the Toledo Truth Teller, we meet Ken, who is an executive at Enervate, the company that bought Dunder Mifflin after the events of ‘The Office.’ The division Ken works in is the tissue paper company called Softees. This is a fictional brand that was created to serve as a contrast with the newspaper, to show how bad the condition is for the Truth Teller. When Ken reveals what Enervate makes, he starts with the toilet paper and ends with the newspaper, and points out that this is in order of quality. This means that the newspaper is considered worse than toilet paper, which says something about the kind of journalism that’s going on there.
Another thing that puts the Truth Teller in straight competition with Softees is the fact that the latter actually makes money for Enervate. It is the most profitable branch of the company, which is why most of its funds are reserved for the toilet paper company, while the newspaper branch runs on fumes, trying to keep itself alive while slowly dying in the process. The fact that the Truth Teller is considered a lesser priority makes Ken arrogant enough to want to quash it altogether, as it would mean that the money that goes to the newspaper will then be redirected to Softees, which would be profitable for him in more ways than one.
The success of the newspaper would also undermine Ken, who finds himself receding in the background as the new editor-in-chief, Ned Sampson, seems to become more important, especially when things start to get better for the Truth Teller under his leadership. The fact that a toilet paper company is more of a competition for the Truth Teller shows that it has a long way to go, and in that context, Softees serves as a marker for the beginning of Truth Teller’s journey, indicating that there is a lot of work to do if Ned wants his team and the newspaper to come out on the top.
Read More: Is The Toledo Truth Teller a Real Newspaper? Is Enervate a Real Company?
