I’m a newspaper reporter, and I regret to report ‘The Paper’ is actually pretty funny

Oh no. My coworker Ryan is going to be so mad.

I was about 11 minutes into the new semi-spin-off of “The Office” called “The Paper” when I sent him a message: “I’m laughing.”

He responded with a gif of Michael Scott saying, “No!”

Why is Ryan so angry? Partly, I assume, it’s because he’s a millennial and as such worships “The Office” as a sacred text.

And who among us doesn’t?

What was once just a spin-off itself (are we still calling it “The American Office”?) turned into a cultural touchstone for a lot of us who were in our early, early 20s and just starting in the workforce in 2005 when the U.S. version of “The Office” premiered.

That show romanticized and normalized the tedious adult life of cubicles and coffee-mug-based dramas that we suddenly saw stretching before us until we died, likely as we entered some number into a spreadsheet at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday in the year 2061.

What was a two-season acerbic cringe comedy starring Ricky Gervais in the U.K. was defanged by a much sweeter, more likable Steve Carell. It went on for nine seasons (though sadly not all with Carell).

“The Office” ended its run in 2013, but many of us have been rewatching it at regular intervals, or maybe just when we want to rest our minds and go to sleep.

Now, we are lulled into a sense of peace by the order of pre-pandemic office life. Everyone in a button-up shirt, showing up to work at the same time, waiting for the moment the clock strikes 5 and you can finally go home again.

Ryan probably thinks nothing can reach those heights. Why even try?

Also, he works for a newspaper (or as we like to call ourselves, a local news source that produces a newspaper, among other things). And while newspapers are often represented on TV and in movies, they aren’t often represented very accurately.

“The Paper,” this new show that premiered Thursday on Peacock from Greg Daniels with Ricky Gervais as an executive producer, is about a newspaper in what can only be the year 2025.

You’ll have to excuse Ryan for being a bit wary of the whole thing.

Also, let’s be honest. Ryan probably doesn’t have time enough in his life to get into a new streaming-only TV show. If he’s anything like me, he’s not even caught up on “Foundation” yet, let alone “Alien Earth.”

And he just found out about Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in “1923” after logging on to American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment during a particularly long flight. If he’s anything like me.

But, like I said, I have bad news for Ryan: “The Paper” isn’t just funny; it also nails some aspects of the news business at the quarter mark of the 21st century.

The Oregonian is in a much, much better place than the fictional Toledo Truth Teller. For example: We employ a lot of reporters. And we aren’t owned by a company that makes most of its money from toilet paper.

But there’s a bit in episode one about the website — “TTT Online” — versus the print product that will make anyone who has worked in the biz in the past 10 years laugh out loud.

Like the American version of its predecessor, “The Paper” seems to simultaneously mock and honor its subject. The writers clearly care about the local news, or at the very least have spent a lot of time with people who care.

What they get right is the sense of reverence people in the news have for the work.

“Print is permanent, OK?” says Ned Sampson, the new editor of The Truth Teller played by Domhnall Gleeson, at the beginning of the second episode. “It’s like true love.”

Ned is obsessed with the possibility of the local news, which is played for laughs but also can be quite poignant, sometimes at the same time.

When he finishes his first edition of the paper, he says, gleefully, “It’s like having homework every day forever until the paper fails and I lose my job.”

And that really is what it’s like. And we all love it, in a way that to outsiders seems pretty over-the-top.

Will Ryan watch “The Paper”? I’m not sure. But is he living it right now? You’ll have to visit OregonLive.com to find out.

Watch all 10 episodes of “The Paper” right now on Peacock.

–Lizzy Acker covers life and culture and writes the advice column Why Tho? Reach her at 503-221-8052 or lacker@oregonian.com.