2947-02-02: Notice: Cosmic Background Opens Håkøya Studio
There have been rumors circling for some weeks in the community about a potential downsizing here at Cosmic Background, partly due to the fact that this astute audience discovered the emigration form-files Duncan submitted early last month. We kept quiet about this controversy until now, partly to protect Duncan's privacy as he makes this transition, and partly because we were required by arrangements made with some of our partners not to publicize our effort until today.
Cosmic Background has not downsized, nor has Duncan been laid off. In fact, quite the opposite. Duncan's role as editor of Tales from the Inbox on this text feed has not been eliminated, and this feature of our content, which has acquired a modest but quite vocal following, will not be phased out. Duncan is relocating off Planet at Centauri, but he is doing so in order to take charge of a new studio which has been completed aboard Håkøya's Argyris spaceport.
The purpose of this new facility is to take advantage of the expanding Naval Survey Auxiliary presence in Håkøya, and to put some of our staff close to the effort to open a new Frontier across the Sagittarius Gap. Cosmic Background's studio, centrally located in Centauri, has placed us increasingly farther from what we consider our core audience - those of you out there pushing out the edges of the Coreward and Rimward Frontiers. For some time we've been looking for a good way to establish a presence closer to the Frontiers, and when the Naval Survey Auxiliary approached us and several other interstellar-community media outlets with the proposal that we build out our presence in Håkøya simultaneous with Survey's own expansion there.
Most of you know that Duncan is the youngest member of our publicly visible staff, but he is also the one with the fewest local family connections, who is most able to take responsibility of a branch facility at this time. When this effort began, we were expecting Sovanna to relocate as well and to take charge of the operation of this new studio, but she has had a change in personal circumstances which prevents her joining the Håkøya team at this time.
Duncan and the other members of the new studio team departed for the Frontier this morning, and the next few issues of Tales from the Inbox have been prepared ahead of his travel. He will likely dispatch at least one text feed item while en route, which we will of course publish whenever his content arrives here in the flagship studio. His departure the same day as the very public departure of the Arrowhawk squadron for the same destination is not accidental; Duncan's team and staff from three other datacast media outlets have been allowed to make the journey aboard Arrowhawk. While we have no doubt that this is part of the ongoing public relations effort to undo the Navy's loss of face following New Rheims and The Great Purge, traveling aboard a Naval cruiser has allowed our staff to cut its transit time to Håkøya by nearly half.
