The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will sunset its print publication by the end of the year, AJC Publisher Andrew Morse told staff members at a town hall meeting Thursday morning.
It is the end of an era. Going back 157 years, the AJC, through its predecessor publications, has been delivering its news through an actual newspaper.
As of the beginning of 2026, AJC will fully commit its resources to its digital news product.
“We made this decision from a position of strength,” Morse said in an interview right after the town hall meeting. “It was the right decision. It was the right decision for journalism. It was the right decision for our people. And it was the right decision for the business.”
Morse also sent a letter to readers explaining why the AJC decided to quit printing the newspaper altogether, saying the company understood this would be a change for its daily subscribers. About 40,000 subscribers still receive the print edition.
In the interview, Morse said the company had been “managing a declining asset for a long time.” Instead of investing in publishing and delivering a newspaper, Morse said the company made the decision to accelerate growth in the digital product.
Morse did acknowledge that the print product is profitable while the digital product is not. When asked why the company would discontinue its profitable product in favor of one that is not, Morse said he viewed the situation differently.
“The way I look at the AJC, we are treating the AJC as a growth business,” Morse said. “This is not a cost exercise. This is a growth exercise.”
Three years ago, SaportaReport published a story that AJC executives had decided to cease printing the daily newspaper on weekdays, but it was planning to keep a weekend edition.
Leaders, however, put that decision on pause. Morse told members of the Rotary Club of Atlanta in September of 2023 that the decision was postponed because they realized how much subscribers loved the newspaper. He also announced that day that the AJC would be moving back into the city after more than a decade in the suburbs.
On Thursday, Morse said the printed newspaper was nominally profitable.
“We worked really hard to optimize the cost of the paper,” Morse said. “The print edition was still profitable. We made a decision from a position of strength.”
Shortly after Morse became publisher of the AJC in January 2023, he shared ambitious goals for a tenfold increase in digital subscribers to 500,000 by the end of 2026. AJC leaders now expect there will be a 35 percent increase in digital subscriptions from December 2023 to December 2025 — far short of Morse’s initial goal.
On Thursday, Morse said the “North-star” goal is still 500,000. But the time horizon has changed, saying: “We still think that’s achievable.”
About 30 full- and part-time employees are expected to lose their jobs because of the decision to quit printing the newspaper.
Morse said that what’s most important is the journalism, not the delivery method.
Although the decision will be a shift for advertisers, Morse said most companies are now “living in a digital world” and appreciate the ability to have a more “direct engagement” with their customers.
“We know print is still very important to advertisers,” Morse said. “We are working really closely with them.”
Morse also said the AJC is exploring whether there might be “some kind of print product” that could be more like a “review” that might be monthly, but he quickly said no decision had been made.
While Morse was meeting with AJC employees at the Thursday town hall, the New York Times published an extensive story, “Atlanta Journal-Constitution to Quit Print Cold Turkey.” The story quoted Morse, who continues to split his time between Atlanta and New York, extensively.
When asked why he had given the story to the NYT, although he is publisher of the AJC, Morse said he had also spoken in advance to the AJC’s Scott Trubey.
“I understand the question,” Morse said. “I thought it was important to tell the story. My focus, first and foremost, was to talk to our people (at the town hall). These things are hard to coordinate.”
At the end of the interview, Morse said his priority continues to be investing in a strong journalism enterprise and not focusing on print versus digital.
“The money needs to go into journalism,” Morse said. “I love journalism more than I love newspapers.”
Note to readers: I worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from July 1981 to August 2008, and I continue to be emotionally connected to the newspaper. It’s been my pleasure to be a subscriber to the printed newspaper for all these decades.
I’m curious to see how they handle subscribers that paid for subscriptions that stretch into 2026. I’m paid up through June next year. I remember your articles in the AJC.
I just want to take the time to say I used to love getting the AJC paper every Sunday. That was the highlight of my week but then you stop doing that and now you want to take everything and turn it digital all because you think you’re going to make more money. You’ll put in a whole lot of people out of work and make it harder for them to try to survive but yet we still try to say this world is getting bad but we are Our Own Worst Enemy. We don’t see what we are doing and how we are affecting people lives all because you want to turn everything technology and a lot of people don’t know how to even use technology especially older people so that go to show that you have no concern about the elderly whatsoever. It’s a saying in the Bible that a lot of people don’t even know about because half of them don’t even read the Bible and I’m not going to quote different scriptures because they are many scriptures that says it you see what you don’t see, you hear but you don’t hear. We see a lot of things that we are doing but we don’t care we hear a lot of things that we should know about but it doesn’t matter. We are our worst enemy and we are going to be our downfall. I pray that you all understand that making all this money is not going one make us any happier and two the more we make the more we want that’s just pure greed and I have yet to see a tractor trailer a U-Haul Fall in rehearse to the burial because you are not going to be able to take it with you so why not use it to help people instead of hurt them. Right now as far as I’m concerned the devil controls this world not God but the devil only is allowed to do what God is willing to let him do so be aware that when he gets tired of you it’s going to stop. You better pray that you want the right side.
Maria: I give tribute to our colleagues, many of whom are gone, who worked heroically to publish The Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution day after day.
Sad that the AJC will no longer arrive on my driveway each morning.
Your and Tom Baxter’s columns on the Saporta Report shows that the best of newspaper journalism can be transplanted to digital writing.
All the best to the dwindling few of our former colleagues and a talented new generation of reporters in building upon the AJC’s print legacy in the digital era.
One reason that the printed edition is profitable is that a subscription costs 4 times what a digital one does.
The news, local or otherwise is widely available through all type of media. Many people didn’t like the liberal spin that the paper offered. To have a circulation that is ony 40,000 subscribers in a market of well over a 1,000,000 is testimony to their general dislike of what you printing. Furthermore, your paywall is aggravating and keeps out prospective subscribers. It might be better that you just go away.
“Liberal spin” from the AJC is a wild statement. Have you ever read the op-ed section?
The print edition is profitable, and the paywall will be more of a problem without the print edition, as their won’t be any news available except behind a paywall.
Fond memories of James Cox Kennedy telling an APS Christmas party the paper would remain relevant by pulling content out for vertical sites like “yall.com.” I had been covering the Internet for over a decade by then, and I laughed my fool head off in the back of the room. Clueless. And that cluelessness has continued to this day, forcing people to buy a month or a year of news if they want to read a story.
“The money needs to go into journalism,” Morse said. “I love journalism more than I love newspapers.” says Morse.
The digital version cultivates short attention spans. A disservice to readers and a sad time for humanity.
So much for “Covering dixie like the dew”.
We all know what the next thing is to happen to the AJC. The cost of the digital version will go up. Wait and see!
I fail to understand how axing a profitable print version will assist in improving the journalism.
Monopolies are never a good thing. Atlanta lost its alternative news view when the Atlanta Journal folded decades ago. It has been all down hill for news in the city since then.