Fresh Loaf

Former AJC Managing Editor John Walter died Thursday, just over six years after leaving Atlanta for Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

The Vineyard Gazette, where Walter served as editor and publisher in 2003 and 2004, had a brief notice of his death Friday

John Walter of Edgartown [Mass.] died unexpectedly yesterday following complications from surgery at Mercy Hospital in Springfield. He was 61 and was co-publisher of Vineyard Stories with his wife Jan Pogue. A complete obituary will appear in a future edition of the Gazette; arrangements were incomplete at press time.

Walter had served as managing editor of the AJC for 12 years and had been expected to succeed top Editor Ron Martin when Martin retired. In 2001, however, Martin hired Julia Wallace as managing editor and, by naming Walter “executive editor,” moved him out of the line of succession.

When Wallace replaced Martin as editor, Walter resigned and moved to Martha’s Vineyard, a scenic vacation island where he became editor and publisher of the twice-weekly Gazette. After leaving the Gazette, Walter and Pogue founded Vineyard Stories, a vanity book publishing company.

Surprisingly, there’s been no notice of Walter’s death in the AJC.

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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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Last 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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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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— Ah, GriftDrift’s “Morning Wooten” means all is right with the world. Especially when he gets on a roll. Delicious.

— Vernon Jones and Jim Martin, who are in an increasingly combative run-off in the Democratic run-off for U.S. Senate, had an Internet debate Sunday. Listen to it here.

— Speaking of Mr. CEO, Amy Morton at Tondee’s Tavern reveals that Jones, a Democrat, gave $3,000 in 2004 to the Republican campaign of Mitchell Kaye in his run for a state House seat.

— The fine ladies over at Pecanne Log, find a gem on eBay and evidence that Andre 3000 aspires to be the Michael Stipe of Atlanta.

— Live Apartment Fire takes a break from television news to vent about upcoming changes at the AJC as revealed in the exclusive interview AJC editor Julia Wallace gave to CL editor Ken Edelstein last week.

— On Confessions of a Political Junkie, Eric shares a widely-circulated email that purports to be a report on Barack Obama blowing off regular troops during his trip to Iraq.

— What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t announce your upcoming nuptials? Jason Pye and his significant other are headed to Vegas. But they won’t be married by Elvis, which seems to defeat the purpose. Just sayin’.

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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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