“The Paper” Is Old News

The Toledo Truth-Teller , the fictional broadsheet at the center of the new comedy “The Paper,” lives in the shadow of its past. A half century ago, the publication had more than a thousand people on its payroll, including a hundred journalists dedicated solely to Buckeye politics; today, it occupies less than one floor of the multi-story Romanesque Revival building that bears its name. Its most promising employee, Mare (Chelsea Frei), spends her days filling the next day’s front page with wire stories written by other reporters about other places. Local coverage has been reduced to high-school sports scores. “I don’t even know if it’s a real paper,” Mare confesses to the incoming editor-in-chief, Ned (Domhnall Gleeson), who, on his first day, vows to keep the Truth-Teller from “collap