Glenn McCutchen (1943-2024): An AJC visionary and friend

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution would have been a much stronger newspaper had the powers that be made Glenn McCutchen the permanent executive editor in 1989.

Instead, they shipped McCutchen out to Texas in 1990, when he became publisher of three smaller newspapers owned by AJC parent Cox Enterprises. (A point of pride for McCutchen was in 2000 when he was publisher of the Longview News-Journal; it was the only newspaper in Texas to endorse Al Gore over native son George W. Bush.)

McCutchen, 80, died April 5 after a month-long battle with brain and lung cancer. At the time, he was living in Portland, Ore. 

After reading all the Facebook posts, the common theme was how much nearly everyone who worked for McCutchen at the AJC admired and loved him. Several said they never would have left the newspaper had he been in charge.

It’s one of the biggest “coulda, woulda, shouldas” in the history of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Let me take you back to the roller-coaster ride we experienced in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. 

Following the retirement of Jim Minter as AJC’s executive editor in 1986, the newspaper hired Bill Kovach, then the Washington bureau chief of the New York Times. Kovach sought to turn the Atlanta paper into the NYT of the South. At the time, McCutchen was managing editor of the papers — then three distinct entities under singular leadership — offering a calming presence in the midst of significant change and turmoil.

Kovach really wanted control of the Cox Washington bureau and threatened to quit if that didn’t happen. Finally, in November 1988, following his repeated threats, then-Publisher Jay Smith accepted his resignation — a move that created even more turbulence and garnered national attention in media circles.

The night Kovach was “fired,” a dozen of us gathered in his living room off 26th Street. In the room was McCutchen and folks who were concerned about what was going to happen to our beloved newspaper.

At one point in the evening, Kovach said the person who should succeed him as executive editor was among us — pointing to Glenn McCutchen.

If only that had happened. 

McCutchen was given the position on an interim basis, but the higher-ups decided in 1989 to give the permanent job to Ron Martin, the first executive editor of USA Today. We then entered into the “USA Today era” of the AJC — with news chunklets, big graphics and no stories jumping from the front page to inside pages.

Within a couple of years, we at the AJC had gone from being the New York Times of the South to USA Today — a true whiplash experience for the staff of 500 or so editorial employees. Because we didn’t put McCutchen in charge, we lost an opportunity to create our own identity as a modern Georgia newspaper that connected with its readers.

McCutchen was born in Columbus, Ga. Compared to his super-conservative family, he was inspired by the legendary editor and publisher Ralph McGill, who was a voice of reason during the tumultuous days of integration.

“Glenn saw what Ralph McGill was doing and saw there was different world,” said Tish McCutchen, his ex-wife. “He flew in the face of his family and the world he grew up in.” Later she added: “Glenn was very calm, very quiet, very pragmatic and very reasonable.”

For me, Glenn was a mentor, advisor, ally, friend and a sparring partner. 

I was not alone. His loyalty, professionalism, friendship to so many journalists in Atlanta was everlasting. But for the record, he did almost fire me multiple times.

It was early 1980 when I first met Glenn. I was applying for a job with “the Extras” — the new zone editions of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Glenn was in charge of launching the Extras, and he was hiring dozens of reporters at entry-level wages.

During that interview, we had our first of many fights. I was completing my master’s in urban studies at Georgia State University, and I was convinced cities designed around cars were unhealthy and unpleasant urban environments, a position I still hold. At the time, my main mode of transportation was a bicycle, something that was almost unheard of during that era in Atlanta. 

Glenn strongly believed cars, roads and highways were the way to travel. I challenged him, not just then but throughout our four-decade-long friendship.

Needless to say, Glenn did not offer me a job on that day. 

But he did let me write one of the first cover stories for Intown Extra about the beaming neon Coca-Cola sign at Margaret Mitchell Square that was about to be taken down because Georgia-Pacific didn’t want the sign at its new front door. My lead: “Time is running out for the Coke sign at Margaret Mitchell Square.” 

Fortunately, I got a job with the Macon Telegraph in April 1980. I kept in touch with Glenn, sending him my front-page stories with the hope he would hire me. Finally, in July 1981, he offered me a job at Intown Extra for $250 a week — $5 more than I was making in Macon.

Our office was at 17th and Peachtree Street, and I lived across the street in the now-demolished Pershing Point triangle — the epitome of smart urbanism. I would take MARTA to cover stories around town, then 60 cents a ride. I would track my rides and put them on my expense reports.

One day, I got a call from Glenn.

“If I see another 60 cents on your expense reports, I’ll fire you,” Glenn threatened. 

From then on out, I continued to ride MARTA, but I put down the miles I would have driven instead of 60 cents. That ended up costing the AJC more money, but I was able to keep my job.

At Intown EXTRA, I started writing about real estate and development — fascinated with how our city was changing. 

I get another call from Glenn. “Do not write any more about buildings,” he said ominously. “People don’t want to read about buildings. People want to read about people.”

What good advice he gave me.

There also was Glenn the ally. The papers were facing an internal lawsuit over gender discrimination in pay.

That caused the newspapers to do a thorough analysis of compensation. That study revealed that the dozens of people who had joined the AJC working for the EXTRA editions were making significantly less than their newsroom counterparts.

Glenn called me into his office, and he told me the paper had been underpaying me for years. He gave me $100 a week raise, and then told me I still wasn’t where I needed to be but that was the best he could do at that moment. “You could sue us, but I hope you won’t,” he told me, promising he’d get me to an equitable salary as soon as he could.

Then, there was the time I was pregnant with my first child. At the time, the AJC made prospective mothers sign a form that declared we had no right to our jobs — six weeks after giving birth. I went into Glenn’s office and told him I didn’t want to sign the form.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Glenn assured me, adding the form was something lawyers had drafted up.

“Then I don’t need to sign this,” I responded. If memory serves me well, I signed the document but added a note that I didn’t agree with the clause saying I had no right to my job.

At the time, the AJC-sponsored Downtown Child Development Center didn’t take infants younger than three months. So, from the time my daughter was six weeks to three months old, I received no pay, had no health insurance and no job guarantee.

I came back to work. With the blessing of Publisher Jay Smith, I helped organized a “Family-Friendly” committee to analyze the AJC’s policies towards families. Glenn was our liaison, and we couldn’t have picked a better buffer.

Glenn had been a single dad of his first two children, so he understood the challenges of balancing a newspaper career with raising a family. He fell in love with Tish, who then also was working with the newspaper. When they got married in April 1977, the paper had an anti-nepotism policy. That meant one of them had to quit their job. Tish quit. In almost every case when two people fell in love at the paper, the woman would quit instead of the man — a major reason why women had a hard time advancing in the newsroom.

Thanks to Glenn’s support, our committee was able to get the paper to change its anti-nepotism policy and to institute a parental leave policy. He protected us from executives who feared we were trying to organize a union in the newsroom because he knew that wasn’t what we were doing.

When Glenn left the AJC in August 1990, it felt like the end of a newspaper that would have aspired to high journalistic standards and been a pillar of civic journalism.

Glenn stayed in touch with many of his devoted colleagues over the decades. But our feuds over transportation alternatives never ended. 

In 2016, the metro Atlanta LINK delegation went to Dallas, where Glenn joined us for our opening night dinner. We also visited two suburban communities – Plano that had light rail access to downtown Dallas and Frisco, that had no rail (it just so happened that Glenn was living in Frisco). In my coverage of metro Dallas, I mentioned the stark difference between both suburban towns.

Glenn took offense at what I wrote, sending me the following email.

My dear Missus Saporta,

You have been unduly critical of Frisco, a delightful little town just north of Dallas. You opined, “we went to Frisco — an auto-dominated, suburban concrete jungle on steroids.” That is plainly not truthful. We have as much asphalt as concrete and more neighborhood golf carts than autos. To be fair, you should issue a correction, amplification, explanation and apology to the dear inhabitants of Frisco, home of the original South Fork Ranch, the home of the notable J.R. Ewing. 

Yours for honesty and accuracy in journalism, 

Glenn 

How I will miss Glenn’s humor, his friendship and his dedication to the news profession. 

But most of all, I will miss what could have been had he been named the permanent executive editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution 35 years ago.

Family-written obituary of Glenn McCutchen:

Glenn McCutchen, longtime journalist and newspaper publisher, died on April 5, 2024, in Portland, Oregon, after a brief battle with cancer at the age of 80. A memorial service is planned for 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Portland. (A service will be held in Georgia sometime this summer).

Retiring as publisher of the Longview (TX) News-Journal in 2008, Glenn had a storied journalism career that took him across the American South. He began at the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer, staying three months before joining the Atlanta Constitution and starting a 42-year career with Cox Enterprises. As he worked his way up from cub reporter at the Constitution to executive editor at the merged Journal-Constitution to publisher of Cox’s Texas newspapers the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, Lufkin Daily News and Longview News-Journal, his career touched luminaries ranging from Jimmy Carter to Vince Dooley to George W. Bush. While at the helm of the Journal-Constitution, the newspaper received two Pulitzer Prizes (and at least as many lawsuits). Glenn would say that as a journalist you’re not doing your job if people aren’t trying to sue you. 

In his career at the Constitution, Glenn detoured into the computer department and inherited the reference library and photographic staff for the Constitution and its sister afternoon paper, the Journal. The two publications were merged in 1982, and Glenn became managing editor in 1985, moving up to executive editor four years later. He was known for his kindness, professionalism and backbone – all celebrated by former colleagues when the news of Glenn’s death emerged on social media. He was credited with helping drive diversity in the newsroom, giving many men and women from all walks of life their start in journalism. This focus on raising people up comes as no surprise to his children, in whom he never stopped trying to cultivate empathy and an innate understanding of what equity means in practice. He understood from his own childhood how hard it is to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” when, in his paraphrased words, “some people have no boots, some people have no bootstraps, and some people have an entire army of staff waiting to put your boots on for you.” 

After moving to Texas in 1990 to become editor and publisher of the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, Glenn brought his backbone to a new state, shaking up the status quo by not backing down when under pressure to pull the comic strip For Better or For Worse when it introduced a gay character in 1993. After three years in Nacogdoches, Glenn became the publisher of the Lufkin Daily News, also retaining oversight of the Nacogdoches paper. Finally, in 1997, he was named publisher of the Longview News-Journal, with managerial responsibility for the Marshall News-Messenger and the weekly Jefferson Jimplecute. In 2000, the News-Journal was the only newspaper in the state of Texas to endorse Al Gore instead of then-Texas governor George W. Bush for President. In the furor that followed, Glenn demonstrated one of the unwavering principles that guided his life: You must do what you think is right, no matter how unpopular. 

Outside of ruffling feathers and speaking truth to power through the printed page, Glenn was active in every community in which he lived, including serving on numerous non-profit boards as well as the chambers of commerce boards in Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Longview. He was board chairman of the Longview Museum of Fine Art for two years. In 2004, he received that museum’s Angel Award, and in 2008, the museum named him Advisory Board Member of the Year. LeTourneau University in Longview honored Glenn with the Henry Gossett Jr. Community Partner Award. He was active in Rotary Clubs in Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Longview and Frisco, Texas, including serving as board president of the Rotary Club of Longview as well as District Secretary. During his time as a journalist he never publicly expressed any political beliefs, believing the impartiality of his role as editor or publisher was more important than his rights as a private citizen. Post-retirement, the residents of Frisco Lakes would tell you this no longer held sway. 

An avid NASCAR fan and inveterate reader and storyteller, Glenn easily made friends wherever he lived. His soft-spoken Southern drawl, gregarious nature, and innate kindness touched many colleagues and friends during his life. He remained passionate about the importance of journalism throughout his life, often sending his family and friends links to articles that he found interesting. 

Glenn McCutchen was born in 1943 in Columbus, Georgia, the second of three sons. His parents both worked for the Muscogee County School District, and the family were charter members of the Edgewood Methodist Church. Glenn played Little League baseball and baritone horn in the district’s elementary school band, and held the dubious honor of never rising above private in junior ROTC at Columbus High School despite four years of forced participation. He worked at the local Piggly Wiggly grocery store and a family-owned service station during high school, having to start work young when his father entered a sanatorium for tuberculosis treatment. 

After graduating from Columbus High School in 1961, Glenn enrolled in Oklahoma Baptist University to study photojournalism on a work scholarship. On March 7, 1965, during his junior year, he watched television coverage of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Glenn and two other OBU students decided to leave campus immediately and join a second march. While he didn’t make it — running out of money near Fort Smith, AK — this experience informed his future. Glenn was particularly inspired by Ralph McGill, the civil rights-crusading editor of the Constitution, who showed that journalists could make a difference and enact positive change on the issues that matter most. 

Glenn married Melanie Garrison of Tulsa, OK, in 1966 and had two children, Warren and Sara. After their divorce in 1975, he married Tish Young of Spartanburg, SC, in 1977 and had two more children, Will and Kate, before divorcing in 2008. He believed family was paramount and demonstrated this throughout his life through his Sunday afternoon phone calls to every child, no matter how grown up or far away you were, and his willingness to put aside his lifelong fear of flying for regular trips to Europe to visit his daughter. 

In 2022, Glenn moved to Portland, Oregon, to be closer to two of his children, Warren and Sara, and his only grandchild, Kei. He joined Westminster Presbyterian Church, continuing his lifelong habit of finding a church family wherever he lived. Late in life he reconnected with an old friend and colleague, Diane Hunter, and while their partnership was cut short far too soon, the joy she brought to him in his last year is celebrated by all who survive him. 

Survivors include his children: Warren McCutchen (and partner Johnna Timmes) of Portland, OR; Sara McCutchen (and wife Akiko Dohi McCutchen) of Portland; Will McCutchen (and wife Katie Curri) of Lebanon, NH; Kate McCutchen (and husband Matt Bennett-Blacklock) of London, England; partner Diane Hunter of Big Canoe, GA; former wife Tish McCutchen of Greenville, SC; granddaughter Kei McCutchen of Portland; brother Charles Edward McCutchen of Macon, Georgia; and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Westminster Presbyterian Church of Portland, Oregon, or Rotary International.