Fresh Loaf

Last week, 73 Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographers, journalists, editors and staffers left 72 Marietta St. for the final time. Included among them were familiar bylines — Maria Saporta, Michelle Hiskey, Frank Niemier and David Pendered are just to name a few — but also a host of behind-the-scenes characters who helped the paper run and kept the machine moving.

Someone at the AJC assembled a slideshow of those departing staffers and their memories of the job. It was played at a going-away party last week. You can view it here.

It’s an a-to-z 23-minute tribute replete with photographs and a Motown soundtrack. If you love journalism or have felt the bond a work environment can create, it’s a heart-wrenching video to watch. The paper’s losing a lot of excellent talent. We wish all of them the best.

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Right under what’s arguably the most important news item of the month, if not the summer, the AJC.com home page has given almost-as-prominent treatment to a story about a woman throwing her two lovers out of her apartment.

No, the American newspaper isn’t dead. It’s just really, really confused.

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor Julia Wallace hasn’t talked publicly about three high-level editors who left the paper suddenly on Aug. 1. But she did tell AJC staff members Friday who’ll replace two of the departed editors.

Melissa Turner takes over for Robert Mashburn as senior editor for Sunday’s print edition, and Quindelda McElroy replaces Virginia Lewis as senior coordinator/planning for the digital department. Mashburn, Lewis and top photo editor Chris Stanfield left the paper suddenly on Aug. 1 for undisclosed reasons.

Wallace lumped those two changes together with 10 new assignments connected to the newsroom’s recently announced buyout of 73 staff members. In her memo, which I wrote about Saturday (but got later from business journalism blogger Chris Roush), Wallace and Managing Editor James Mallory say they’ll announce a lot more staff reshuffling today.

Among the other assignments, Public Editor Angela Tuck becomes chief of the Cobb bureau, where almost all the staff members took the buyout. That answers a question from my earlier post, which reported that longtime business editor reporter Matt Kempner would be the paper’s new public editor.

Full text of the memo after the jump.

(more…)

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The first toe of the other shoe dropped Friday at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when editor Julia Wallace announced a new business editor, a new business columnist and a new public editor, Talking Biz News reports.

In an internal memo, Wallace said Andre Jackson, who joined the AJC staff as an editorial writer earlier this year, will become the new business editor; Thomas Oliver, who’d most recently edited enterprise stories, will write a business column; and business reporter Matt Kempner will become public editor.

This is the leading edge of a staff reshuffling that’s taking place now that 73 staff members have taken a downsizing buyout (not how the concurrent, mysterious departure of three high-level editors plays into the changes). Jackson apparently will do part of editor Kathy Brister, who’d overseen the business desk, and Oliver will attempt to replace the irreplaceable Maria Saporta. Most of these folks leave at the end of the month.

The most surprising part of Wallace’s announcement was the public editor part. (more…)

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Two of the three high-ranking Atlanta Journal-Constitution editors who suddenly left the paper 10 days ago declined this morning to shed much light on their departures.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that,” said Chris Stanfield, who until Aug. 1 was the paper’s top photo editor. Stanfield referred to his departure — along with the departures of senior editor for Sunday and planning Robert Mashburn and digital planning editor Virginia Lewis — as a “private matter.”

“I would prefer not to comment on that,” said Mashburn, who like Stanfield was reached via cellphone.

Moments after Editor Julia Wallace’s Aug. 1 announcement that 73 newsroom employees had agreed to take a downsizing buyout, AJC staff members were stunned to learn separately that Mashburn, Stanfield and Lewis had left the paper — apparently involuntarily. At least one of the three was seen being escorted out of the building. (more…)

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Today’s bound to be less exciting than last Friday was in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Marietta Street newsroom.

First, editor Julia Wallace announced that 73 newsroom staff members had taken a buyout as part of the paper’s downsizing. Then, newsroom staff members were astounded by viewing bits and pieces of a personnel drama that ended with three high-ranking editors suddenly leaving the paper. (See update here.)

Robert Mashburn, a former sports editor whose most recent title was senior Sunday and planning editor, was seen quickly walking out of the building; according to staff members, he hasn’t been back since. Virginia Lewis, a former features editor who most recently was planning editor for the digital department, and Chris Stanfield, who joined the AJC staff in 2004 as director of photography, also departed the paper.

Each of the three were high-ranking editors, described by one employee as among Wallace’s “annointed ones.” Mashburn’s departure was particularly surprising (more…)

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You run the story about her new ad poking fun at Sen. John McCain and you use her mugshot? Doesn’t Access Atlanta have something in its “What are the celebrities up to?” file?

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Here’s the official list of AJC editorial staff members who’ve taken the staff buyout. Sources say Editor Julia Wallace sent the list to the newsroom today.

To all,

Here is a list of the folks who have taken the VSP and wanted their names shared. There are years of great contributions here — stories, postings, headlines, photos, wonderful editing. All will be missed.

Julia

Stan Awtrey, Lisa Axelberg, Tony Barnhart, Byrone Battles, David Beasley, Scott Bernarde, Peter Bilodeau, Kevin Braun, Arthur Brice, Kathy Brister, Lisa Brown, Curtis Bunn, Walter Cumming, Dale Dodson, Rob Douthit, Eileen Drennen, Henry Farber, Nancy Foreman, Sheila Garland, Susan Gast,

Julie Hairston, Renee Hannans, Glenn Hannigan, Ann Hardie, Bill Hendrick, Sarah Hicks, Alma Hill, Michelle Hiskey, Courtney Hoover, Chris Hunt, Bill Husted, Naftal Jahannes, Kris Jensen, Andrea Jones, Elizabeth Lee, Bob Longino, Rebecca McCarthy, Helen McCoy, Amanda Miller, Jill Miller, Adrianne Murchison, Frank Niemeir,

Tom Opdyke, Gerry Overton, Wendy Parker, David Pendered, Buddy Pinkston, Susan Puckett, Stephanie Reid, Yolanda Rodriguez, Karen Rosen, Jacki Rudd, Bill Sanders, Maria Saporta, Andy Sharp, Minla Shields, Diane Stepp, Cameron Tankersley, Paige Taylor, Yemi Toure, Jim Walls, Scott Walton, Beth Warren, Susan Wells, Tom Whitfield, Clint Williams, Matt Winkeljohn, Connie Woods, Rick Zabell

Those are a lot of longtime staff members and familiar bylines. Four of the 73 people who’ve taken buyouts aren’t on Wallace’s list because they didn’t want their names shared.

The one name missing that was mentioned in my earlier post is veteran sports columnist Furman Bisher, who was on lists circulated Friday by staff members. Although newsroom insiders said Bisher may be switching from a staff position to a contractual arrangement, AJC spokeswoman said Mary Dugenske said this in an e-mail: “Furman was not on our list of VSP applicants. He remains a valuable voice for the AJC.” Carefully crafted statement to avoid saying he did take the buyout, or does it just mean he didn’t take it? Dunno. Will update if Mary tells me.

The earlier post provides more details on what the staff members mentioned do at the AJC.

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Furman Bisher, the dean of America’s newspaper sports columnists, appears on a stunning list of talent set to leave the AJC staff voluntarily as part of the daily’s downsizing.

Unlike others on the list, Bisher actually may continue to produce work for the paper. There was talk inside the newsroom about him staying on as a contracted columnist rather than an employee.

But colleagues were able to confirm the names of more than two dozen other journalists who’ll be leaving the paper over the next few months — most at the end of August. A handful are relatively young talents; most are newsroom veterans who represent whole blocks of the AJC’s institutional knowledge.

Among them: film reviewer Bob Longino, investigations editor Jim Walls, and a slew of familiar bylines responsible for some of the paper’s best work over the last two or three decades. Opinion column editor David Beasley also appears on lists circulating among newsroom staffers, but colleagues I contacted weren’t sure whether he did take the paper’s buyout offer. (UPDATE: Beasley confirmed this morning that he’s taking the buyout.) (more…)

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In deference to the obsolete “inverted pyramid” style of news writing that all veteran journalists grew up with, I’ll start with the lede: 73 reporters, editors and other newsroom personnel at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution applied for the paper’s most recent buyout offer and all 73 were accepted.

We’re told the mood is pretty upbeat right now over at the Grey Lady of Marietta Street following a memo this morning from editor Julia Wallace announcing that, because the company’s workforce-reduction target was met, there’s no need for layoffs.

Understandably, the potential of a layoff had been a Sword of Damocles hanging over the newsroom for the past couple of weeks. The paper’s brass had said they wanted to shave the news staff by 58 – and only 58. Would enough people take the buyout?

We’d reported that business desk veteran Bill Hendrick and longtime business columnist Maria Saporta were early takers of the buyout, which offered two weeks of salary and benefits for every year of AJC employment. But it wasn’t until just before noon that AJC rank and file learned the good news that the staff-cutting is over – for now.

In fact, we’ve heard – although not had the opportunity to confirm – that some staffers might have been so worried about the prospect of being laid off that they applied for the buyout even though they didn’t want to leave the paper.

Wallace’s brief memo doesn’t explain why the honchos changed their minds and decided to let an extra 15 people go, but the safe guess is that they figured it would help postpone future trimming of the payroll. For the time being, the AJC will make do with a 335-member newsroom, down from a high point of nearly 500 before last summer’s buyout.

We’ll post more names of departing AJCers as we learn them. Feel free to share what you know.

(An earlier version of this post contained a stupid, brain-fart error of terminology brought to my attention by the first comment. Thanks.)

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Longtime business columnist Maria Saporta is taking the AJC buyout, according to the Atlanta Press Club.

To my mind, this is a big blow to the paper. Saporta, who’s cultivated links with the business community for more than two decades and who’s dad was a well-known and well-liked Atlanta architect, understands the business, civic and political circles of this community like no one else at the AJC.

As I understand it, the AJC doesn’t have to accept her application for the buyout, but I suspect it will let her go.

Today’s the last day for employees who’ve worked at the paper for at least five years to apply for the buyout, as the AJC tries to reduce its edit and sales work force by 185 people. If there aren’t enough buyouts, the paper will likely resort to layoffs.

I’ll try to get more on this.

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This may sound odd for an organization that prides itself on the free flow of ideas, but staffers who are leaving Atlanta Journal-Constitution are being required to sign an agreement that they won’t “disparage” the paper or its management once they leave, according to several AJC employees.

“I was pretty surprised to see that in there,” said one reporter who’s viewed the agreement.

The AJC didn’t care to discuss the stipulation. “As standard practice, we don’t disclose any specifics regarding legal agreements we have with employees,” says spokeswoman Jennifer Morrow.

But one employee said the severance agreement being presented to employees this month bars those who sign it from making “any disparaging or untrue statements about the company,” its subsidiaries or any other employee. The source indicated that the quote was lifted from the actual agreement (I’d love to get my hands on a copy; please e-mail me if you’d like to share one).

An employee who left during last year’s buyout confirmed that similar phrasing was in the severance agreement he signed last year. That employee said the agreement caused some former writers and editors to refrain from discussing newsroom management in media coverage last year, specifically an Atlanta Magazine profile of Editor Julia Wallace by former CL writer Steve Fennessy.

(more…)

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Longtime AJC reporter Bill Hendrick, 60, apparently is the first person in the newsroom to take the buyout offer announced last week by the paper. After I pestered him, he sent a note.

I can say this. I was told I was the first person from the news side to turn in my papers. I did so with great sadness, but with the feeling that I had no choice. I have no complaints, given the state of the industry, and understanding how business works. And I have no regrets. In my career I’ve been to every contintinent but Antartica and almost every state. It’s circumstance that’s turning the industry upside down. I’m sad, but not mad.

Hendrick’s byline has appeared in the AJC over the last 29 years. A series he wrote in August 1987 foreshadowed the stock market crash in October of that year and won two national awards. Among other things he covered health, science and business.

The paper is cutting its newsroom staff by 85. Editor Julia Wallace says 28 of those positions were vacant, which means 57 people actually will leave the staff. Another 104 positions are slated to be eliminated in sales.

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The Project for Excellence in Journalism released a report today that may sound familiar to folks who’ve been watching the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s recent travails.

“Meet the American daily newspaper of 2008,” it begins. Then:

It has fewer pages than three years ago, the paper stock is thinner, and the stories are shorter. There is less foreign and national news, less space devoted to science, the arts, features and a range of specialized subjects. Business coverage is either packaged in an increasingly thin stand-alone section or collapsed into another part of the paper. The crossword puzzle has shrunk, the TV listings and stock tables may have disappeared, but coverage of some local issues has strengthened and investigative reporting remains highly valued. (more…)

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In the morning, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editor Julia Wallace announced the second round of newsroom cuts in a little over a year at the daily. In the afternoon, she struck a somewhat optimistic tone about the paper’s future.

“I don’t think the editorial mission changes,” Wallace said in an interview with Fresh Loaf. “I think that we have some opportunities and it’s incumbent on us to take advantage of those.”

Wallace says the paper’s overall readership is up — when you count online views — to reaching 2.2 million each week. But she also acknowledges that it’ll be tough to do the same amount of work with a staff that’ll be down to 350 from around 500 a little over a year ago.

The interview follows after the jump, but first some highlights: (more…)

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This morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff cuts are the second major rounds of cuts at the paper in less than two years — but this time they appear to be more painful.

In the spring of 2007, the paper offered buyouts to longtime staffers and reduced the newsroom workforce by around 80 people — to around 420. This time the reductions won’t be all voluntary and, we’re told, the terms are a bit less generous. (NOTE: Editor Julia Wallace just told me the buyout terms are the same as last year — except they’re available to more staffers. My interview with Wallace coming soon on Fresh Loaf.)

According to the press release: “The staff reductions, which will occur between August and October, will take place primarily in News and Advertising and will be accomplished through a combination of voluntary buyouts, involuntary layoffs and position eliminations.”

The company’s release says the AJC will reduce its full-time staff of 2,300 by 8 percent of the AJC’s 2,300 employees. That works out to 184 or so people.

It’s unclear what portion of that will come from the folks who actually gather information and present it to the public. Publisher John Mellott said the cuts will mainly come from advertising and editorial.
Not surprisingly, the paper’s print offerings will suffer:
* Better Health will be folded into Wednesday Living.

* Buyer’s Edge will move into Saturday Living.

* Discontinued local sections, including NorthSide, CityLife and NorthWest, as well as the daily Gwinnett news section.

No news on my earlier report that the brass was considering elimination of the Sunday @issue. We’ll be checking into that.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced its long-awaited reorganization and staff cuts this morning. The workforce reduction: 8 percent of 2,300 full-time employees — which works out to 184.

More details to come soon — possibly interview with Julia Wallace. Here’s the official release:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Announces Changes
to Organizational Structure and Print Edition
Changes reduce costs and strengthen focus on AJC core mission

ATLANTA (July 16, 2008) – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), the Southeast’s largest newspaper company, today announced a series of product changes as well as an 8 percent reduction in its workforce of 2,300 full-time employees.

“These changes are difficult but necessary,” said AJC Publisher John Mellott. “They enable us to remain the local news and information leader, and they position us for future growth.”

Beginning in August, the newspaper will discontinue geographically targeted community sections. In addition to the daily Gwinnett News section, discontinued sections include NorthSide, CityLife and NorthWest. To accommodate community coverage, the daily Metro and Sports sections will expand. The AJC will continue to have a dedicated staff of reporters located in North Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties.

“Over time, the costs to produce the community sections have become prohibitive,” said Mellott. “Paper costs have risen 35% this year, and, since we drive 80,000 miles a day to deliver the AJC, fuel costs have also hit us hard.”

Other changes to the print edition include:
Moving Better Health features from a stand-alonesection into an expanded Wednesday Living section.
Merging content from Saturday’s Buyer’sEdge section into an expanded Sunday Living section.
Strengthening the Sunday Homefinder sectionand moving the HomeStyle décor and remodeling section from a limited-circulationrun on Thursday to full distribution on Sunday.

All product changes will happen in August.

The staff reductions, which will occur between August and October, will take place primarily in News and Advertising and will be accomplished through a combination of voluntary buyouts, involuntary layoffs and position eliminations. Despite these staffing changes, the AJC will remain the largest news organization in the Southeast.

The AJC has evolved beyond its roots as a print publishing company. ajc.com is the third most visited local newspaper Web site in the country. In 2007, ajc.com logged more than one billion page views. In June, AJC mobile traffic surpassed one million page views per month. In addition to being the local leader in print and digital, the AJC is also the number one direct mailer in the Atlanta market, thanks to its Clipper, REACH and Valpak products.

“Our transformation to a multi-media company is working,” said Mellott. “The AJC’s total audience is larger than ever. Every week, 2.2 million adults read the AJC in print or online. That’s an increase of nearly 7% since last year. The Sunday AJC reaches more metro Atlantans than any other single medium in our area.”

Print remains key to the company’s strategy. The AJC is currently implementing $30 million in new printing technologies that will yield a brighter, more attractive and more colorful newspaper. The AJC plans to launch an enhanced Sunday edition in early 2009.

“We are moving forward from a position of strength, “said Mellott. “We appreciate the support of our employees, readers, online users, advertisers and the community.”
(more…)

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Word among Atlanta Journal-Constitution staffers is that the paper’s Sunday @issue section will be eliminated later this summer or early in the fall.

In an e-mail response to my questions, AJC Editor Julia Wallace insisted that no decisions have been made about a long-planned remake of the Sunday paper and suggested that I “ignore the rumors.”

“We’re in the middle of a thorough review of our Sunday newspaper,” Wallace said, adding that the AJC’s been seeking reader feedback on possible changes.

Several newsroom rank-and-file members are under the impression that the decision has been made, however. They say @issue — the Sunday op-ed-and-essay section — will shrink and be folded into another part of the paper as part of the much-vaunted “AJC 2.0″ project.

(more…)

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AJC Publisher John Mellott attempted to calm the waters Thursday in an e-mail to staff members after a sister Cox family-owned paper announced big staff reductions earlier in the week. But Mellott also warned that more cuts are likely to hit the Journal-Constitution.

“The economic factors affecting our business have worsened,” Mellott wrote to the AJC staff. “The recession, the housing market downturn, as well as soaring newsprint and fuel costs have increased the urgency to reduce expenses. We will do so aggressively and in ways that make most sense for our market, our readers and our advertisers.”

Mellott’s e-mail followed an announcement that the Palm Beach Post, which along with the Atlanta paper is owned by Cox Newspapers, would reduce its workforce of 1,350 people by 300 — including a whopping 130 from the newsroom. The cuts are the latest in a slew of workforce reductions at dailies across the country.

“All Cox newspapers are carefully assessing their own markets and business models and will be taking the actions necessary to remain financially sound,” Mellott said in the e-mail.

Mellott also said a long-coming effort to reinvent the print paper, dubbed internally as “AJC 2.0” are “in the final prototyping stage.” While the daily’s brass have talked enthusiastically about “2.0,” many rank-and-file journalists are sweating what may be around the corner. They fear it will herald a new round of cuts.

(more…)

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