Newsroom reunion is set. Save the date on your 2024 calendars
Former RG news staffers will gather for an afternoon reunion on Saturday, June 29, 2024 in the lobby of the former Register-Guard office building at 3500 Chad Drive.
The address is familiar to everyone who went to work in northeast Eugene from January 1998 until November 2021. That’s when the few remaining RG journalists began working from home after Gannett’s second-floor space was leased to SentinelOne, a big cybersecurity company.
Guard Publishing Company (the Baker family) still owns the two-story office building and the cavernous warehouse that once housed a Mitsubishi press, mailroom, and distribution center. The large Register-Guard sign still faces I-5 on the building’s east side.
Plans for 2024 recently came together after we received permission to hold the reunion in the spacious lobby of our former workplace.
The steering committee envisions the event as a casual drop-in open house where news staffers can reconnect from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. and share memories of the “RG Golden Era” — however they choose to define those years.
All Baker family members are invited to join us. Most will be in Eugene the day before the reunion for Guard’s annual shareholders business meeting.
The registration fee of no more than $50 per person covers the cost of hiring a caterer to run a no-host bar from 1:00 to 5:00 and to serve a buffet of light appetizers from 2:00 to 4:00.
The venue appealed to the steering committee for several reasons.
- The lobby is newly redecorated and comfortably furnished.
- There’s space to display readily available R-G memorabilia, such as framed historic front pages, enlarged news photos, and selected bound volumes.
- Parking is plentiful in the front and back lots because SentinelOne and other tenants are closed on Saturdays.
- And, unlike other local venues, the owners aren’t charging a fee for R-G retirees to use the lobby for the event. Registration fees are entirely for catering and incidental costs.
We’ll soon let you know how and when to register.
— Donovan Mack
Sounds great! Thank you all for making this possible and for what undoubtedly will be your continued time, energy and creativity. And many thanks to the Bakers for providing the space. Looking forward to seeing everyone!
Sounds like a plan! It’s now on my 2024 calendar. Looking forward to it.
Many thanks to the committee for pursuing this vision of a reunion! Maybe it’s also a memorial tribute to a paper we all once loved. I hope to be there… and hope that I’ll still recognize some of the old-old timers from the R-G days on High Street.
Thanks for arranging this. It will be great to reconnect with former colleagues in the building where we produced good journalism together.