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| The Paper Season 2: Is the Glass Club in Toledo Real? Cincinnati Chronicle Explained |
The second season of Peacock’s The Paper sends the Toledo Truth Teller team into unfamiliar territory, introducing two locations that feel important enough to have their own history: the exclusive Glass Club and Cincinnati’s struggling Cincinnati Chronicle. But despite how convincingly the show brings both into the story, neither is a real place or newspaper.
The answer is fairly straightforward: the Glass Club and Cincinnati Chronicle are fictional creations made for The Paper Season 2. The season uses them to expand the world beyond the Toledo newsroom, while also giving several characters fresh challenges.
Ned and his colleagues become caught up in the mystery surrounding a man connected to the Glass Club, while Mare temporarily leaves the Truth Teller to work at the Chronicle in Cincinnati. By the finale, those separate threads begin to overlap, making both locations more significant to the wider story and leaving plenty of room for Season 3.
The Glass Club is presented as an exclusive Toledo establishment, but viewers looking for it in the real city will be disappointed. There is no real Glass Club matching the one seen in The Paper. Although the series is set in Toledo, Ohio, much of its production takes place in California, with Universal Studios providing several locations used to represent the fictionalised version of Toledo.
The Glass Club is part of that television geography. The production used the Universal Studios lot at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California, for various scenes representing Toledo, and the club fits neatly into that approach. The polished surroundings help sell the idea of a private, high-end establishment without requiring the production to build an entirely separate world just for a location that may only appear for part of the season.
Then there is the Cincinnati Chronicle, which is equally fictional. Mare's temporary move to Cincinnati gives Season 2 a useful opportunity to shake up the usual newsroom dynamic and show her operating somewhere that feels bigger, better funded and rather less scrappy than the Toledo Truth Teller.
Interestingly, the fictional Chronicle was brought to life inside a very real newspaper building. The newsroom scenes were filmed at the Los Angeles Times building in El Segundo, California, at 2300 East Imperial Highway. So, while the Cincinnati newspaper itself does not exist, the building viewers see on screen has a genuine connection to journalism.
That choice reportedly began when co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman visited the Los Angeles Times building while promoting the first season. The location caught their attention because of its visual energy, particularly the nearby freeway and the activity surrounding the building. It apparently had exactly the sort of busy, slightly chaotic atmosphere that television producers tend to love because, conveniently, reality had already done half the production design for them.
When Season 2 required a newsroom for Mare's Cincinnati storyline, the building became an obvious candidate. The production wanted Cincinnati to look noticeably more prosperous than Toledo, helping underline the difference between the two newspapers without having characters repeatedly explain it. In simple terms, Cincinnati has the resources, while Toledo is working with considerably less.
The production reportedly occupied space several floors below the main newsroom, transforming it into the fictional Chronicle. Production designer Susie Mancini used the real newsroom as inspiration, paying attention to tiny details that made the fictional workplace feel lived-in rather than like an overly tidy television set. Computers covered with notes, story boards and other newsroom clutter helped create the impression that journalists actually worked there, rather than simply appearing at desks whenever the plot needed them.
That attention to detail matters because Mare's Cincinnati storyline is partly about proving herself professionally. The Chronicle therefore needs to feel like a credible workplace with its own rhythm, hierarchy and pressures. A completely artificial newsroom might have worked, but using an actual newspaper environment gives those scenes an extra layer of authenticity.
There is also a neat bit of irony in the decision. The Paper is fundamentally interested in the increasingly complicated reality of local journalism, yet one of its most convincing fictional newspapers was created inside a building belonging to a real newspaper. Television pretending to be journalism inside a journalism building is probably the sort of oddly perfect detail that would make a newsroom veteran sigh and then carry on working.
Fans' reactions to the two locations vary. Some viewers appreciate the fact that The Paper is not pretending the Glass Club or Cincinnati Chronicle are real, particularly because the fictional settings give the writers more freedom with the story. Others have understandably been curious about whether the locations exist, especially after the production makes them look convincing enough to invite a Google search immediately after an episode ends.
The Cincinnati Chronicle tends to attract even more curiosity because its newsroom looks so believable. There is something particularly amusing about watching a fictional newspaper struggle for staff and resources while sitting inside a real newspaper building. It gives the whole storyline an almost accidental meta quality, even if that was not necessarily the point.
My take is that this works rather well for Season 2. The fictional locations are more useful dramatically than real ones would have been, because the writers can decide exactly what the Glass Club represents and what the Chronicle means to Mare without being tied to the history, reputation or real-world operations of an existing organisation. The Glass Club feels suitably mysterious and exclusive, while the Cincinnati Chronicle gives Mare a believable change of environment without turning the show into a travel documentary about Ohio.
The real genius, though, is the production design. A fictional newspaper can easily look fake, particularly in a comedy-drama where there is a risk that every computer screen, noticeboard and desk feels suspiciously clean. Using the Los Angeles Times building and filling it with convincing newsroom details gives the Chronicle enough texture to make viewers forget they are looking at a set dressed to represent somewhere else.
There is also a nice contrast between the two locations. The Glass Club represents secrecy, privilege and a world that exists beyond the everyday struggles of the Truth Teller, while the Cincinnati Chronicle represents the bigger professional environment Mare wants to experience. Neither place needs to exist in real life because they exist to push the characters somewhere new.
So, if you were wondering whether you could actually visit the Glass Club in Toledo or pick up an edition of the Cincinnati Chronicle in Cincinnati, the answer is no. They belong to The Paper's fictional universe, with California doing a surprisingly convincing impression of Ohio along the way.
And honestly, considering how much television production depends on pretending one place is another, that might be the least surprising twist of the season. What did you think of Mare's Cincinnati storyline, and did you initially assume either the Glass Club or Cincinnati Chronicle was real? Let us know which Season 2 location fooled you the most.