AJC to close local bureaus

What with all the other news coming out of the AJC today, I’d almost forgotten that Editor Julia Wallace told staffers in a morning memo that the paper would be closing three of its four remaining suburban news bureaus. The Cobb, North Fulton and DeKalb County bureaus — located in rental space in Marietta, Alpharetta and downtown Decatur, respectively — will be shut down come July. Only the mammoth Gwinnett bureau, located in the same AJC-owned building as the newspaper’s press, will be spared it seems.

To local journalists, this is a big sign of changing times. A decade ago, the AJC had bureaus in Cherokee, Fayette and other exurban locales, as well as roving reporters such as Norman Arey in North Georgia and Bill Osinski downstate. As far as I know, Marietta Daily Journal owner Otis Brumby still maintains nearly a dozen offices across metro Atlanta to produce his weekly Neighbor Newspaper chain.

It can be argued, I suppose, that far-flung bureaus have become obsolete in an age of cell phones and laptops. Does that mean the Cobb government reporter will be filing his stories from a Starbucks in Marietta? Or that the paper will no longer cover Cobb government? I guess we’ll find out when Julia issues her follow-up memo tomorrow…