8 questions: How to ace a Gannett job interview

Google receives a million job applications a year. It's estimated that only about 1 in 130 applications results in a job. By comparison, about 1 in 14 high-school students applying to Harvard gets accepted.

-- The Wall Street Journal, "How to Ace a Google Interview," Dec. 24

The Unofficial Gannett Co. Inc. Job Interview™

Except where indicated, choose one answer. (The correct answers are in the comments section, below.)

1. CEOs are underpaid: True or false?

• A. True 
• B. False

2. You are second to none as a champion of the First Amendment. Which business are you? (Choose all that apply.)

• A. an international media and marketing solutions company 
• B. one of the world's largest marketing communications networks 
• C. a global creative communications company

3. Two trains traveling on parallel tracks are going toward each other from a distance of 960 kilometers. If one train is moving at 100 kilometers per hour and the other is moving at 140 kilometers per hour, after how many hours will the trains pass each other?

• A. Four hours 
• B. 5 hours and 23 minutes 
• C. Stupid question; they should have taken the Corporate jet!

4. One of Gannett's newspapers is famous for their association with one of these events?

• A. Watergate 
• B. Poopgate 
• C. Troopergate

5. What is $37.1 million?

• A. The combined annual wages of 742 Gannett employees paid $50,000 a year 
• B. The combined cost of 12,366 Madelyn Jennings college scholarships at $3,000 each 
• C. The appropriate exit payment to a CEO for his dedication and for the solid foundation he has laid for the company going forward

6. Showing support for employees, the new CEO's team did which of the following (choose all that apply):

• A. Ordered another round of unpaid furloughs 
• B. Eliminated reserved parking for top executives 
• C. Announced the first major purchase of iPhones -- five years after the company introduced the concept of newsroom MoJos

7. What is the correct ratio of Congressional reporters to entertainment reporters?

• A. 5:27 
• B. 27:5

8. What is E=mc2?

• A. The formula for calculating a CEO’s $37.1 million retirement and severance payout for his having championed our consumers and their ever-changing needs for news and information 
• B. Einstein’s theory of relativity

Earlier: Insider's report of a real job interview at a Gannett paper.