News that one of the US’ largest metro dailies will cease print editions at the end of this year has prompted the now-familiar round of speculation about what happens next.
Will the move of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to digital-only – saving it millions of dollars – succeed… or will it threaten the paper’s traditional reader base? How will it go, and who will be next?
And with what may be seen as a change of management at News Corp following the settlement of the family’s affairs, how do News’ Australian and UK timelines look now. As it happens, I’m in the UK as I write this, and somewhat surprised that daily readers are still offered the same range of “pops” and “heavies” as they were when I left the country four decades ago… and that the regional mastheads I was involved with then still exist in print.
But back to Atlanta: the announcement came with publisher and president Andrew Morse telling the New York Times the paper will publish its last print edition on the last day of 2025, after a run of 157 years.
It would have stopped printing earlier, in June 2023, but for Morse’s appointment, which led to a stay of execution while the masthead beefed up its digital news product.
Timing of the latest announcement now “reflects the strength of the AJC’s journalism and digital products, not a need to hit a budget target”.
The e-paper will continue, and a “white glove” customer service will help print subscribers access the digital offerings. An updated version of its mobile app – “a customisable launching pad for news, video, podcasts, newsletters, the e-edition and perks for AJC subscribers” – is also imminent, and there are plans for more events.
The paper’s owner is wealthy family-controlled conglomerate Cox Enterprises – some of the heirs to which live in Australia – capable of providing a financial cushion if the changes prompt short-term losses for a few years.
In a Poynter article, Rick Edmonds expresses some doubts about whether digital targets can be achieved, and says a “stampede” of like-minded publishers is unlikely.
Edmonds points to ready savings from cutting print, and as well as to the “shakier” case on digital revenue and subscriber targets, but says “the future belongs to the bold – except sometimes when it doesn’t (his qualifier).
“The AJC plan will demand a lot of its staff – and of its customers, too – if it is to succeed.”
Edmonds says cutbacks to just a few days a week or Sunday-only have become common in the industry, “but quitting print altogether is not”, a factor being that Sunday papers typically remain profitable.
“Despite steep declines that show no signs of moderating in 2025, print still contributes a meaningful share of revenue (half or more at many outlets) since it commands much higher rates among both subscribers and advertisers.”
He says Morse’s “painful choice” is whether to disrupt itself.
“It’s a high-wire exercise without a net, but certainly dawdling hasn’t worked much,” he says.
Morse was a panel guest at WAN-Ifra’s 2024 World News Media Congress 2024 in Copenhagen, when an enduring comment was that “if we walk around saying (generative AI) is an extinction event, it will be one.
“If we walk around saying this is a remarkable technology, that is there for the taking, I think this could be a golden age of journalism.”
Let’s hope he’s right on both counts.
Or perhaps he’ll be missing out on the weekend bonanza of Sunday (and Saturday) print editions, many of them carrying an array of newspaper-inserted magazines into homes. The print requirements of these are now different to those of the past, with flexibility from longer news deadlines and correspondingly less cost. Perhaps a new “golden age” beckons here too.
Peter Coleman