AJC’s move OTP is now official

And it’s … Perimeter Center. Specifically, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, which is, as far as I can tell, a fairly anonymous office building a stone’s throw from the plush Cox Enterprises headquarters.

Newsroom employees were alerted mere minutes ago to their impending relocation by an interoffice memo. The timeframe for the move is apparently “the end of the second quarter”— in other words, June-ish.

One intown AJCer we spoke to said being forced to commute outside the Perimeter will be offset by the fact that the new location is essentially across the street from the Perimeter Center MARTA station — and Perimeter Mall, with its busy food court.

I’m told editor Julie Wallace was just seen strolling the newsroom to gauge the reaction of the staff. I’m further told most folks are just glad they won’t have to schlep up to Gwinnett.

Inconvenience aside, the real news here is that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the daily newspaper for one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas, is abandoning downtown for the ‘burbs after 141 years. I’m told several other major dailies have done the same thing, but I can’t imagine how this could be a positive trend. But then, in the newspaper biz, very little is positive these days…

Oh, while I was writing this, the AJC posted its own article about the move.