[Gannett owned Tribune Tower in Oakland, Calif., 1979-83]
The days when publishers built signature corporate homes probably died for good yesterday, when the cash-strapped New York Times Co. said it raised $225 million through a sale and leaseback of a chunk of its new Manhattan headquarters building. NYT spent more than $600 million on the 52-story tower by Italian architect Renzo Piano, and completed only two years ago. Surely, it will be the last of its kind.
Gannett buildings now on the market in similar sale-leaseback deals include the Poughkeepsie Journal's Colonial Revival home in New York (left). It was built in the 1930s; GCI wants $5.3 million.The former GCI-owned Oakland Tribune abandoned its signature building and tower nearly two years ago. The 21-story building was completed in 1923. GCI got the Tribune with The Cincinnati Enquirer in the 1979 purchase of Combined Communications Corp.
GCI sold the Oakland paper in 1983 to its editor, Robert Maynard, and his wife. Amid steep losses and after a Freedom Forum-led bailout, the Maynards sold the Tribune in 1992; it's now owned by MediaNews Group. MediaNews and Gannett are business partners in Detroit, and in the Texas-New Mexico Newspaper Partnership.
More noteworthy architecture
- Chicago Tribune
- Daily Planet of Metropolis
- Gannett-USA Today headquarters
- Los Angeles Times
- New York Times New Year's Eve ball
- Oshkosh Northwestern
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer roof top globe
ROFLMAO! The Daily Planet.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget The Daily Bugle in NYC, Jim.
Some of us news codgers are feeling pretty emotional these days. We never thought we would see the day when everything we aspired to collapsed. The romance and grit of journalism is becoming legendary, stomped and squeezed out of the information center far too soon.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had savored it more. Instead I was too focused on cramming interviews, research and writing into rushed days to hit neverending deadlines. Some of it was done in smoky rooms or dark rooms while sitting in bad office chairs hunched over frustrating computer terminals, sweating when the AC broke and you couldn't open the windows or freezing, typing while wearing gloves and coats when the heating went bust. Old buildings being sold. Seasoned newspaper people out on the street.
What will the culture and society of the newsroom become now?
Jim, Gannett is still a minority owner of the Oakland Tribune through Bay Area News Group, it's partnership with MediaNews in NoCal. You also left off the LA News Group, the other MediaNews-Gannett partnership.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget The Oshkosh Northwestern, Jim.
ReplyDelete10:24 followup: Among paper's Gannett had operated in the Bay Area was the Marin I-J, which it contributed to the California Newspaper Partnership.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the Columbus Dispatch!
ReplyDeletehttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/3014710374_2b336cb58b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/65439930%40N00/3014710374/&usg=__b14qEvuPuQRp7P5JQMq4BswvYuY=&h=375&w=500&sz=112&hl=en&start=39&sig2=xiZFNiVF_i7y_ng7ovSTqw&um=1&tbnid=4O2coYN3T8ex_M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&ei=LtW2Sci0AczOkAXQlPnqCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3DColumbus%2BDispatch%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26sa%3DN%26start%3D36%26um%3D1
I tried to look at all the pics, but the Seattle web site took so long to load, I gave up. (I'm on hi-speed cable internet.) Maybe that suggests part of what's wrong with GCI's ability to move to cyber.
ReplyDeleteGannett buildings now on the market in similar sale-leaseback deals include the Poughkeepsie Journal's Colonial Revival home in New York (left). It was built in 1920;
ReplyDeleteThat's a beautiful building. How very sad.
7:47 p.m. Spot on.
ReplyDeleteI like how all the people with no skills and who are facing imminent layoffs are romanticizing the days of shitty buildings.
ReplyDeleteThese are the same people who are too scared to pursue the New Jersey issue.
What a bunch of losers. You keep pointing out which ones Jim should include on his list, though. I'm sure that will make the coming days easier to bear.
"Seasoned newspaper people out on the street."
I guess they should have done a better job of ensuring the places could continue. Instead, they clung to their outdated ideologies. Pathetic.