I heard a rumor this evening that within six months, The AJC will only publish print editions from Thursday through Sunday of each week. Monday through Wednesday, they will publish web editions exclusively.
If true, it's not all that surprising. Editor & Publisher reports for the six-month period ending September 2008, The AJC "saw one of the steepest losses in daily circulation (down 13.6%) but it advanced its net combined audience by 3%, thanks to increases in online and print readership."
Increased audience, but not revenue. All while cutting circulation to Georgians who still want the dead tree edition, aka the cash cow.
The Ledger reported recently, "for the third time in less than two years, The AJC will again reduce its circulation area."
In last week's edition of The Towns Sentinel, a reader put forth the case of an AJC carrier who delivered to all of Towns County. The county borders North Carolina and has the highest point in Georgia, Brasstown Bald. It is home to Zell Miller, former Georgia governor and former U.S. senator. "A business owned by Carolyn Shook, who has delivered The AJC for many years has been lost," began the letter by Carl Schultz. Schultz wrote that Shook's route had 800 daily and 1,500 Sunday papers. "Attempts to purchase them directly from The AJC via her pick-up [point] at one of the 27 counties has been denied by The AJC.
The AJC certainly isn't alone. Newspapers have been hemmoraging money for years, and the downturn in the economy only makes these ailing businesses even more vulnerable. But if someone doesn't figure out how to monetize these monsters soon, there will be no professional news gathering organizations left. And yes, that would be very bad indeed.
Related link: Jeff Jarvis on David Carr's proposition for an iTunes model for news.
7 Responses to “AJC rumor”
Yeah, no correlation here at all. News Consumption? UP everywhere. Newspapers & Reading of same? Down universally. AJC's coverage of local & state politics? Down probably close to 90% since the 1980's. Staff cuts, coverage cuts. Non regular coverage of much of what goes on 'under the Gold Dome'. Much the same story around the nation too.
Again, if you're unable or unwilling to actually cover and report on the news, 'without fear or favor'? Someone else will do it for you. And possibly for cheaper too. That day has arrived. No more news from the 'village idiots' who give us all the received wisdom from on high from unnamed 'well placed sources' who just now issue press releases for them.
Newspapers should mean Reading, & catering to a reading and literate public. When I read the AJC today, it's like reading the juvenile Scholastics magazine. It's been so 'dumbed down' to capture the Non literate audience, they've lost their original mission. Hence the hemorrhaging of subscribers continues. They can get their news elsewhere. And now do.
Again SSDD, since, oh for much of the past 20 years or so.
The hurricane will never hit NOLA, until it does. They had a newspaper that fought to cover the disaster, they're surviving. Essential needs get met. Vital reporting remains to be done. JMP
[http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2009/01/12/atomization.html]
Hey Mel... how much validity do you give that rumor?
On a 10 point scale, I would give it an 8.
Yikes, that's high. Ah, the information economy, but nobody thinks information is worth paying for. Odd.
For Christmas, I received a weekday subscription to the New York Times. I still love reading papers, but yeah.. AJC is a rag.
I always thought that the price of the paper was basically just a nominal fee to keep the circulation to relatively serious users and that the classifieds and advertising actually paid the bills. Is that not the case? If it is the case, then it seems like it's not US who aren't paying up, it's the advertisers on the website.
With print editions, circulation numbers drive ad rates. That's why the paper's decision to voluntarily cut circulation is so puzzling.
Sort of related, does anyone know what the story is behind Evening Edge?
http://www.ajc.com/eveningedge/