Fresh Loaf

From “You Can Never Have Too Many Mothers” , today’s top story at Salon.com:

Cambodians need coupons, too, but it’s actually a different Julia Wallace.

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Can’t wait a couple of days to see the newly redesigned Sunday AJC? You’re in luck. The paper has put up a new website chock-full of design samples and a detailed description of its entire marketing campaign, whose tagline is “Unplug.”

There’s a new TV commercial, a new interactive web link for customers, a radio ad, photos of new paper racks, samples from the direct mail campaign and outdoor advertising — including a “coupon station” (at right) that presumably goes into grocery stores.

Remember that talk a while back about AJC 2.0? This is it, folks, the moment when the newsprint hits the road. Or something like that.

For those who didn’t care much for the Sunday couple relaxing on a couch from Julia Wallace’s infomercial, too bad — you’re gonna be seeing a lot of those two.

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The AJC’s brand-new look will be unveiled next Tuesday. But for those who cannot wait, the paper has quietly posted an infomercial video featuring Editor Julia Wallace extolling new features to be found in the redesigned daily and Sunday editions.

Apart from noting that the video employs the same soothing tones you’d expect from an ad for incontinence medication, I will bite my tongue and open the forum for commentary, criticism and random observations.

Please, for the love of Christ, if you watch this video, take the time to post a comment.

Note: We’ve removed a comment from the thread below because it violates our comment policy.

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Awash in red ink, the AJC recently cut a third of its news staff

Much like the overall economy, the Fourth Estate seems to be in free-fall. Advertising revenues have dropped 23 percent over the past two years. Newspaper stocks are close to worthless. Big-city papers across the country have slashed staff, cut coverage areas, closed bureaus, quit publishing on certain days and even shut down altogether.

Far from being an exception, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is among the hardest hit. For reasons that have been the subject of fierce speculation, the AJC has suffered from one of the steepest declines in paid readership among major dailies. And earlier this year, in prefacing the need for cutbacks, its new publisher revealed that the AJC was losing $1 million a week, which placed it in the company of the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and other papers perilously close to going belly up.

That’s the background for last week’s sweeping downsizing and reorganization of the AJC newsroom. The paper is in the process of shedding 78 veteran editors, reporters and other journalists through voluntary buyouts — its third such program in three years — and another dozen or so graphic artists, news researchers and customer care employees as a result of a round of post-buyout layoffs. Two weeks ago, more than 40 part-time newsroom employees were told by phone that they no longer had jobs.

In the flush times of a decade ago, the AJC was home to about 500 full-time journalists; when the buyout dust settles, that number will have been pared back to slightly more than 200, most of whom will have heavier workloads and fewer resources than ever before.

Whatever your opinion of the AJC’s virtues, the newspaper going forward can’t escape being a diminished version of its former self. The question is: What kind of news coverage can Atlanta still expect from its daily newspaper?

(more…)

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The AJC is sending Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Cynthia Tucker to Washington D.C. to serve as the paper’s political columnist, according to the latest, seemingly hourly reorganization update from uber-Editor Julia Wallace to her beleaguered staff.

Apparently, the change has been in the works for months, but my initial reaction is that it’s an odd move for a company that seems to be shrinking its focus to the very local. Wallace’s memo suggests Tucker, who also serves as editorial page editor, will be writing just for the AJC, as opposed to the Cox News Service.

Here’s how Wallace explains the move, from a PR release:

“Our nation is facing historic changes and challenges, and decisions made in D.C. and those who make them hold great interest for our audience,” said AJC Editor Julia Wallace. “We are excited that Cynthia is embarking on a new opportunity to provide compelling content and to continue journalism’s vital function of a government watchdog. She’s known for tackling hot topics such as voting rights, immigration reform and investing in education. This is a great move for Cynthia, the AJC, and most importantly, our audience.”

(more…)

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This morning’s announcement that the AJC is offering a third round of buyouts came as something of a relief to many among the paper’s beleaguered editorial staff. There’s only so long you can show up for work not knowing if you’re going to be canned that day before you start feeling a little stressed.

Senior writers and editors who were already convinced there was a pink sheet with their name on it are, we’re told, generally pleased to find out they’ve got another chance to get out with a decent severance package. In fact, some employees have already handed in their completed buyout applications and are waiting to be told when is their last day on the job.

The deal on the table is the same as last time: two week’s pay for every year of employment. But the number of bodies to be cleared out is higher than past downsizings. The stated goal is to cut the editorial payroll – currently 323 positions – by about 90. But we’re told that’s an estimate based on the total salary dollars the honchos are looking to save. That figure hasn’t been released.

(more…)

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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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The rumors are flying about this week’s anticipated shake-up at the AJC, but little is certain. What we’ve heard – though, we stress, have not been able to substantiate – is that the newspaper brass are looking to cut about 60 warm bodies from the newsroom and may pursue a program of buyouts.

We understand that at the Palm Beach Post, another Cox paper, 200 staffers were “invited” to apply for buyout packages in an effort to cut 130 positions – about one-third of the newsroom staff.

Last we checked, the AJC employed a newsroom staff of more than 400 reporters, editors, photographers, etc.

Supposedly, Editor Julia Wallace is expected to convene a staff meeting to announce the latest changes Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. We’ll be watching.

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As if we needed more evidence that daily newspapers are not a growth industry, Editor & Publisher has released more grim statistics. Of the nation’s 25 largest daily newspapers, virtually all of them saw a decline in paid circulation. The only papers to escape a downturn in weekday circ were the two biggest, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, which basically remained static. But c’mon, when is the last time anyone can remember actually buying a USA Today? If it weren’t for hotels and airports, this newspaper wouldn’t exist.

The biggest drop was experienced by the Dallas Morning News, whose weekday circ fell a breath-taking 10.6 percent. Ouch. The next-biggest decline was by our very own Atlanta Journal-Constitution, whose Monday-Friday circulation tumbled by 8.5 percent – to about 327,000 – followed by the Boston Globe, Newark’s Star Ledger and so on. The average drop looked to be somewhere around 4.5 percent.

It also seems that the AJC’s ranking among big-city newspapers slipped a couple of notches. Now the nation’s 18th-largest paper by circulation, it has fallen behind both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Cleveland Plain Dealer since last year. We mention this merely as trivia; only in New York, Chicago and a very few other cities with competing dailies do relative rankings have meaning.

E&P also helpfully lists Sunday circ numbers, and they are even more deflating. The ad-filled Sunday edition is the bread and butter for most newspapers, so this news is especially alarming. The Denver Post/Rocky Mountain News – a combined Sunday edition of the city’s two big dailies – tumbled a stunning 14.8 percent, while Newark readers tuned out to the tune of 12.3 percent. The only major dailies to see small increases in Sunday sales were the St. Petersburg Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The AJC fared slightly better than most, losing only 5 percent of its Sunday circulation since last year, which dropped it just under 5 million copies. This has to be viewed as good news at the AJC, which had seen much-steeper declines in previous months. Even now, AJC staffers and pollsters are feverishly working on what the company calls “AJC 2.0″ – a near-complete overhaul of the Sunday paper that may be unveiled before the end of the year. AJC editor Julia Wallace personally told CL last year that the Sunday paper would likely shrink in size.

The AJC ran an article over the weekend about the new stats, reminding readers that the size of the falloff was partly due to the paper’s decision to shrink its circulation zone in an effort to cut costs. But the headline smacked of Soviet-style spin: “AJC boosts print/online audience.” Polling has shown that, for reasons beyond our ken, AJC.com enjoys one of the healthier readerships among daily newspaper websites. But as any media consultant will tell you, online readers don’t pay the bills.

What does all of this mean for CL and other alternative weekly newspapers? Sorry for the cop-out, but it’s tough to say. One of the reasons for the decline in paid newspaper readership is that, with the ascendancy of the Internet, people have come to view media as something that should be free. But consumption of the printed word – free or otherwise – is slowly declining as well, which doesn’t bode well for newspapers in general.

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