Pulitzer winner leaving AJC

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Pulitzer-winning managing editor Hank Klibanoff is leaving the paper.

In a memo sent out today, and posted on poynter.org, Klibanoff didn’t offer specifics about his next move:

I feel I have another big chapter to write, and I don’t want to wait til it’s too late. I cannot tell you right now what that next thing is because I don’t know. Over the past year, I have seen some possibilities, and received calls about others, that interested me, intrigued me, or fascinated me. Leaving allows me to look and listen openly and cleanly.

Klibanoff, along with co-author Gene Roberts, was awarded the Pulitzer last year for his 2006 book, “The Race Beat,” which, according to the New York Times, “painstakingly traces the evolution of civil rights press coverage in the South.”

Klibanoff’s departure means that esteemed editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker will be the AJC’s sole Pulitzer-holder and celebrated cartoonist Mike Luckovich will be the AJC’s sole Pulitzer-holders. (Sorry, Mike!)

In a memo to the paper’s staff, AJC editor Julia Wallace wrote that Klibanoff, during his six-year tenure, “played a critical role in the development of the newsroom.” No word on how Klibanoff’s exit will impact that recently reshuffled newsroom, or who might replace him.