[Oooh, shiny: Gannett's headquarters in McLean, Va.]Have you been to Corporate's gleaming offices in suburban Virginia, site of next month's annual meeting? I have: three times. It was quite the eye-opener for someone like me: a newspaper lover and San Francisco resident, living at ground zero for technology business start-ups.
It houses maybe 2,000 people -- about 600 Corporate employees (the exact number remains a mystery) and another 1,000 to 1,500 USA Today staff. In some ways, the complex reflects the problems afflicting Gannett. It's in a remote office park, insulated from too much of the real world. (Kind of like the communities where some of the executives live.) Public transportation from Washington, 12 traffic-choked miles away, stinks.
The buildings are paved in glass, chrome and granite, making them look more like the fancy Tysons Galleria mall, on a rise not far away, than a newspaper publisher. Gannett sits downslope -- a location that's made cellphone calls unreliable. (Insert, here: gratuitous reference to the fact GCI now competes against technology start-ups. But wireless e-mail? Hard to do, at HQ.)If Gannett was a technology start-up, you'd find it housed in a more urban area like San Francisco, where younger software engineers like to work, play -- and make cellphone calls! Instead, Gannett sits in an office park where trees lining the quiet streets barely conceal the neighbors: defense contractors and other companies in similar glass-and-chrome buildings. When I walked to work one morning, armed guards in gray flak jackets glanced up at me from behind dark sunglasses, as they checked IDs of everyone entering nearby parking lots. Oy.
Why am I telling you this? I'm thinking of attending the annual shareholders' meeting, April 30 -- but I'm dreading all that bad karma.
Details, details!
Could someone please tell me where CEO Craig Dubow, CFO Gracia Martore and all the other top dogs eat lunch? Are we talking cafeteria sandwiches in plastic containers -- or executive dining room, with china, crystal and cloth napkins? Use this link to e-mail the answer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
[Inset image: a BlackBerry Curve smartphone]
13 comments:
The D.C. Hilton is a good place(private joke, between me and someone at Gannett).
You are crazy! They eat at the cafe like everyone else. I chatted with Gracia last week as she was getting her turkey sandwich. She has a great laugh! Give her a break she is actually a great person.
Your thoughts and experience at corp is really off the mark. It's not an office park. Cell phones work here. We have wireless internet access. What gives. your beggining to sound like you have issues with GCI.
Save the drama for your mama!
I know that back on 1000 Wilson Blvd all the execs had in office delivery for both breakfast and lunch - and they choose from a nicely appointed menu.
Christ you people are morons. There was no cafeteria at the building in Rosslyn. Who cares where they get their lunch. Jim, are you and Sparky communists?
Sprint cells don't work in the building most of the time. And the "Death Star" is a soul-deadening edifice that is nowhere for hard-bitten journalists to work. Corporate types, yes. Journalists, no.
LOL: Sparky is SO not a communist! And I'm just doing what journalists do: Asking questions.
Now, why does where the top dogs eat lunch matter? The last time I was at McLean, Va., I was wolfing down a late and not very nutritious lunch in my cubicle. (Lunch, BTW, that I paid for myself.) I happened to look up, and there were USA Today's top editors, convening for a meeting in what I think is called the Fish Bowl conference room. I watched, vaguely envious and annoyed, while they circulated around -- serving themselves what looked like pretty good catered food. There was china, chilled beverages. (Later, someone told me there were occasionally little printed menus.) It made an impression -- and not a very good one -- kind of like the impression I got when I read that Ford Motor still has a swank executive dining room, even while that once-great company goes down the tubes.
Catered lunch matters because I just don't think Corporate types really understand how sad and fear-filled the folks are in the field. They're not in anywhere near the same boat the rest of the employees are now in.
The company rumor when the place was built was the Tom Curley wanted a place where he could play softball. The field(s) are/were out back. Anybody ever use them?
The catered lunch you speak of is from the cafeteria! We use real plates in effort to be more "green". It's the same food you get if you went and paid for it yourself. Don't get me wrong it MUCH better than what most newspapers have in the feild. Remember most of GCI corporate has come from the feild. We remember what it's like.
PS I thought GCI sold the land that had the softball feild on it?
I have to agree with the above comments Jim. This blog has turned into the typical newsroom whining. Who cares where and what the CEO and CFO eat lunch!
I care about it - fuck you other people!
Correct there was no cafeteria in Rosslyn but there was catered food available and I think Marriott was the caterer - they used the kitchen off of the 30 floor on the Gannett side - the Corporate execs had their daily meals delivered and they placed their orders the day before. Advertising / Circ. also used them for their business meetings and corp entertainment.
Yes - TC built the field but anyone could use it and was used for the yearly inter department tournamnet. The land has since been sold at a great profit I might add.
Gracia in the cafeteria HA HA HA like she eats with slaves
The number of employees in the death star are as followed
450- Gannett Corporate(est.)
900- USAT (est.)
100- janitors, food service people, people from other companies and rent-a-cops I have to estimate these because so many get fired,quit and get hired so the numbers change every day almost
If the corporate honchos eat in the cafeteria then good for them. (And maybe bad for employees, anybody see the German film "Lives of Others" last year? Great scene in the East German Stasi dining room, but I digress.)
But this is relevant because at a time when the company is sinking faster the Titanic, corporate is squeezing resources at every turn and the execs are getting royal treatment it shows just out of touch they are.
Post a Comment