The president and publisher of the AJC, Andrew Morse, told the New York Times that the paper will put its resources into digital news.
ATLANTA — The print newspaper edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will end this year, the paper’s publisher told the New York Times on Thursday.
The president and publisher of the AJC, Andrew Morse, told The Times that the paper will instead put its resources into digital news.
The AJC’s editor in chief, Leroy Chapman Jr., told The Times that the outlet has already been operating as a “primarily digital publication.”
The AJC also posted its own story on the news, saying the print edition will end on Dec. 31. The report said there are currently about 40,000 subscribers who receive the print edition — with circulation peaking two decades ago at more than 600,000. The Times reports that about 30 staff members will lose their jobs as a result of ceasing print publishing. Half of those are part-time positions, The Times reported.
“The fact is, printing newspapers and putting them in trucks and driving them around and delivering them on people’s front stoops has not been the most effective way to distribute the news in a very long time,” Morse told The Times.
The AJC’s story said its digital audience now “far surpasses that of print and has for some time.”
“We understand that it’s a matter of inevitability for print,” Chapman Jr. told The Times: “I’ve been here since 2011. This has been an ongoing conversation about the ‘when.’”
The AJC’s reporting says the paper’s origins trace back 157 years. The outlet moved its offices back into Midtown last year.
“This decision now is the best thing we can do in order to make sure the AJC is as relevant for the next 157 years as it has been for the last,” Morse said in the AJC report.
The report stated the changes were announced to staff in a town hall Thursday.
