Wanted: Cobb reporters for the AJC
August 5, 2008 at 11:19 am by Scott Henry in NewsLast week’s editorial buyout offer at the AJC was structured as something of a gamble for reporters: if enough of them took the deal, there’d be no need for layoffs. Otherwise…
As with any game of chance, you sometimes get unexpected outcomes. In this case, it turns out to be the wholesale departure of the Cobb bureau staff, a result that appears to have taken even the paper’s top brass by surprise.
In one fell swoop, the AJC’s Cobb outpost will lose Bureau Chief Sheila Garland; government reporter Tom Opdyke; business reporter David Pendered; cops reporter Yolanda Rodriguez; general assignment reporter Karen Rosen; enterprise reporter Bill Sanders; photographer Andy Sharp; and education reporter Diane Stepp.
As far as we can tell, the only full-timer left in Cobb is enterprise reporter Jeremy Redmon, who wasn’t eligible to take the buyout because he’s been with the paper only three years.
We’re told editor Julia Wallace has sent out a staff memo asking for volunteers for reassignment to the Cobb office.
The exodus may have something to do with the paper’s decision to discontinue the Extras, the Thursday zoned sections containing news and sports geared to their specific communities. But folks in the DeKalb bureau decided to stay, despite the impending demise of the DeKalb Extra, while the Cobbers bailed.
There was once a time when Cobb was the paper’s Tiffany bureau; many of the paper’s top editors and executives lived in Cobb and they made sure the local staff was top-notch. The newsroom was as big as that of the Marietta Daily Journal, but with more resources at its disposal.
The times are definitely a-changin’ …
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