Only 33 days ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) quit printing the newspaper.
Then on Feb. 3 at 6:01 p.m., AJC Publisher Andrew Morse sent a message to all employees saying that 15 percent of the workforce was being eliminated. People who would be losing their jobs would receive a call by 7 p.m. If they didn’t get a call, they were safe.
Morse, who has been publisher for the past three years, wrote employees that the cuts “will best position us to continue our growth.”
When Morse was named publisher of the AJC, there were reports that parent company Cox Enterprises would be investing as much as $100 million to transform the news organization. Morse predicted that the changes would boost circulation to 500,000 digital and print subscribers in 2026.
The results appear to have fallen far short of that. An AJC story by business editor Scott Trubey stated that at the end of 2025, there were about 100,000 digital subscribers, but the paper had “far exceeded its goals” in retaining print subscribers as digital customers. Trubey shared that about 50 AJC employees would be losing their jobs, with about half of the cuts coming from the newsroom.
Hugo Rojo, an AJC spokesman, provided the following statement from Morse to SaportaReport:
“We’ve made these difficult decisions because we believe they will best position us to continue to accelerate our growth. We have invested heavily in our editorial, product and business teams over the last three years, and we’ve seen direct results from that investment. As we grow, we must be agile and ensure we are devoting resources where they will have the most impact for our audience. While these changes are difficult on a personal level, they will best position the AJC to continue delivering journalism worth paying for.”
Several people contacted Tuesday evening said the growth over the past three years has been incremental at best. There were new hires in digital and video production, as well as bringing on correspondents throughout the state. The AJC also expanded access to readers across the state through digital offerings.
But there were also layoffs of traditional news reporters who had been covering local governments.
The AJC wouldn’t confirm who still had their jobs and who did not. A few journalists confirmed they were still employed, but SaportaReport decided not to publish those names until it had a more complete list.
Also, a couple of high-profile moves — the hiring of Monica Kaufmann and Bill Nigut — were reversed. Neither are working at the AJC.
In the message to employees, Morse called it “a difficult step as an organization.”
Morse went on to say:
“As we evolve, we need to be agile and focus resources where they will have the most impact for our audience. The changes to come will be difficult on a personal level, but will best position us to support our journalism and business moving forward.”
He also said the AJC’s high-profile new offices in Midtown would be closed on Wednesday for the day and that there would be a virtual Town Hall on Thursday that would last 30 minutes with follow-up meetings.
“This is difficult news for all of us. We will be saying goodbye to colleagues who have given so much of themselves to the AJC,” Morse said. “We are grateful for all they have contributed.”
Local newspapers and news organizations across the country have been facing similar difficulties. Some have cut back the number of days they print a newspaper; some have discontinued print altogether; and others have announced plans to cease operations altogether. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which began publishing in 1786, recently said it would cease all its operations on May 3, 2026.
Note to readers: As a 27-year employee of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1981 to 2008, it breaks my heart to see these job cuts. We’re in a precarious time when we need more journalists, not fewer. It is my sincere hope the AJC will be able to bounce back and continue its critical role of informing its readers in Atlanta and beyond about news and events as well as providing analysis both locally and nationally.
— Maria Saporta
The AJC’s online product has to be the worst in the country. I get the New York Times on a daily basis in an email. I can click on any single article and read it. With the AJC, I get a “picture” of the paper and some 3-5 clicks later I might get to the article. If I use the app, I often times cannot even find the article on the app that was in the “picture” email. Every day I question why I have a subscription.
Thanks for your article. It reminds me just what the end of the print AJC represents.
For a long while, I trusted that Andrew Morse was committed to keeping the print going and that he had what it would take to make that happen. I was mistaken.
The coming couple of years will see the global and local impact of AI on journalism along with the coming of age of all social media influences that may bring an age of fresh enlightenment, or not. We’re on the cusp of figuring out what it all means beyond what we see. Did the print edition need to stop while so much is uncertain?
What news medium will succeed beyond these transitional, troubling times and win the coveted honor of being the most/only credible news medium? Will news sources throw the noodle onto the wall to see what sticks and pop out short-attention-span flashes? Will people be content to click through snippet after snippet, hoping to find a nugget of interesting content? and who will bother to fact-check? or will they just keep clicking?
A successful and reliable news source is the one that stands by its content, tangibly, by committing it to ink on paper.
Putting truth to paper in Atlanta has been important for generations. Adapting to other news delivery methods has been an admirable effort alongside the print presence. It is next to impossible to manipulate, taint, and falsify what is already in ink. No so for the alternatives.
Not only is ink-on-paper permanent and credible, it humanizes the writers, those whose stories are told, and those of us who hold the paper, who feel it, smell it, read it, fold it up when we’re done and keep a few editions so our grandchildren can build forts with them. That’s what is hard to lose.
Demanding a monthly subscription for a day’s paper is a recipe for failure. No business model means no jobs.
The AJC has made an error in my opinion. I was a print subscriber for 40 years and they stated that print was small but still profitable. If they had kept a print Sunday paper with the investigative journalism features and all the local obits I would have paid a lot to keep that going. As it is I was offered a 1.99 option for 6 months of digital , which I never read anymore.
Maybe Morse should have thought about keeping the AJC a NON-BIASED news source instead of a propaganda arm. There will be more cuts coming as they continue to alienate half of their readership. The only place I will pay to be preached to is church.
Amazing how the AJC is sabotaging their own product and then instead of being transparent double down and claim they are “improving” their product. When they stopped distributing print, they also caused the cessation of the distribution of other print newspapers that their couriers would also deliver such as NY Times, Wall St. Journal, and USA Today. It also caused retail outlets to stop distributing ALL print. The AJC refused to shine their light on themselves. For example, at no time did I read that they were actually losing money on print. Obviously they want to redeploy their assets for a better rate of return. Perfectly legal, just don’t proclaim yourself as the guardian of local accountability while, in the final analysis, betraying the public’s trust. Many cities much smaller than Atlanta still have a print edition. The AJC’s duplicity in bringing in a “hit” squad to kill print while continuing to “expose” others’ wrongdoing is hypocrisy at best and alleged fraud at worst. Thank G-D for the SaportaReport.
The Cox family could fund the AJC for generations to come with the stroke of a pen, but I guess they need to stash their billions away in tax shelters.
No clue how Andrew Morse keeps getting high-profile media jobs when he continues to fail. Maybe we’ll see him propose AJC+ to save the day?