 | |
 Front page ofThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution from January 27, 2024 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Cox Enterprises |
| Publisher | Andrew Morse |
| Editor | Leroy Chapman |
| Founded | Constitution: 1868; 157 years ago (1868) Journal: 1883; 142 years ago (1883) Journal-Constitution: 1960; 65 years ago (1960) (Sundays); 1976; 49 years ago (1976) (Saturday–Sunday); 2001; 24 years ago (2001) (Every day; merger of weekday morningConstitution and afternoonJournal) |
| Headquarters | Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Circulation | 174,251 (as of April 24, 2020)[1] |
| ISSN | 1539-7459 |
| OCLC number | 48488341 |
| Website | ajc.com |
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (sometimes known as theAJC) is an American daily newspaper based inmetropolitan area of Atlanta,Georgia. It is the flagship publication ofCox Enterprises. TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger betweenThe Atlanta Journal andThe Atlanta Constitution.[2] The two staffs were combined in 1982. Separate publication of the morningConstitution and the afternoonJournal ended in 2001 in favor of a single morning paper under theJournal-Constitution name.[3]
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has its headquarters inMidtown Atlanta.[4] It was formerly co-owned with television flagshipWSB-TV and six radio stations, which are located separately in Midtown Atlanta; the newspaper remained part of Cox Enterprises, while WSB became part of an independentCox Media Group.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will publish its last print edition on December 31, 2025, before moving to a digital-only service.[5]
In 1868,Carey Wentworth Styles, along with his joint venture partners James Anderson and (future Atlanta mayor)William Hemphill purchased a small newspaper, theAtlanta Daily Opinion which they renamedThe Constitution, as it was originally known, was first published on June 16, 1868.[6] Its name changed toThe Atlanta Constitution in October 1869.[7] Hemphill became the business manager, a position he retained until 1901.[8] When Styles was unable to liquidate his holdings in anAlbany newspaper, he could not pay for his purchase of theConstitution. He was forced to surrender his interest in the paper to Anderson and Hemphill, who each owned one half. In 1870, Anderson sold his one-half interest in the paper to Col. E. Y. Clarke.[9] In active competition with other Atlanta newspapers, Hemphill hired special trains (one engine and car) to deliver newspapers to theMacon marketplace.[10] The newspaper became such a force that by 1871 it had overwhelmed theDaily Intelligencer, the only Atlanta paper to survive theAmerican Civil War. In August 1875, its name was changed toThe Atlanta Daily Constitution for two weeks, then toThe Constitution again for about a year.[11] In 1876, CaptainEvan Howell (a formerIntelligencer city editor) purchased the 50 percent interest in the paper from E. Y. Clarke and became its editor-in-chief. That same year,Joel Chandler Harris began writing for the paper. He soon created the character ofUncle Remus, a black storyteller, to recount stories from African-American culture. The Howell family eventually owned full interest in the paper from 1902 until 1950.
In October 1876, the newspaper was renamedThe Daily Constitution before settling on the nameThe Atlanta Constitution in September 1881.[12] During the 1880s, editorHenry W. Grady was a spokesman for the "New South", encouraging industrial development as well as the founding of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Evan Howell's family would come to ownThe Atlanta Constitution from 1902 to 1950.[8]
TheConstitution established one of the first radio broadcasting stations,WGM, which began operating on March 17, 1922, two days after the debut of theJournal's WSB. However, WGM ceased operations after just over a year. Its equipment was donated to what was then known asGeorgia School of Technology, which used it to help launch WBBF (later WGST, nowWGKA AM 920) in January 1924.[13]
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In late 1947, theConstitution established radio station WCON (AM 550).[14] Subsequently, it received approval to operate an FM station, WCON-FM 98.5 mHz, and a TV station, WCON-TV, on channel 2.
But the 1950 merger with theJournal required major adjustments. ContemporaryFederal Communications Commission "duopoly" regulations disallowed owning more than one AM, FM, or TV station in a given market, and theAtlanta Journal already owned WSB AM 750 and WSB-FM 104.5, as well as WSB-TV on channel 8. WCON and the original WSB-FM were shut down to comply with the duopoly restrictions.[15] The WCON-TV construction permit was canceled, and WSB-TV was allowed to move from channel 8 to channel 2.[16] To standardize with its sister stations, WCON-FM's call letters were changed to WSB-FM.
Ralph McGill, editor for theConstitution in the 1940s, was one of the few southern newspaper editors to support theAmerican Civil Rights Movement. Other noteworthy editors ofThe Atlanta Constitution includeJ. Reginald Murphy. "Reg" Murphy gained notoriety after being kidnapped in 1974. Murphy later moved to the West Coast and served as editor of theSan Francisco Examiner.
Celestine Sibley was an award-winning reporter, editor, and beloved columnist for theConstitution from 1941 to 1999 and wrote 25 fiction and nonfiction books about Southern life. After her death, theGeorgia House of Representatives named its press gallery in her honor as a mark of affection and respect.
From the 1970s until he died in 1994,Lewis Grizzard was a popular humor columnist for theConstitution. He portrayed Southern "redneck" culture with a mixture of ridicule and respect.
The Constitution won numerousPulitzer Prizes. In 1931, it won aPulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing corruption at the local level. In 1959,The Constitution won aPulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for Ralph McGill's editorial "A Church, A School..." In 1967, it was awarded anotherPulitzer Prize forEugene Patterson's editorials. (Patterson later left his post as editor over a dispute over an op-ed piece.) In 1960, Jack Nelson won thePulitzer Prize for local reporting by exposing abuses atMilledgeville State Hospital for the mentally ill.
The papers were published in independent editions even after newsrooms were combined in 1982. In 1988 thePulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning went to the Constitution'sDoug Marlette. Editorial cartoonistMike Luckovich received Pulitzer Prizes in 1995 and 2006.Cynthia Tucker received a 2007Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
The Atlanta Journal was established in 1883. Founder E. F. Hoge sold the paper to Atlanta lawyerHoke Smith in 1887. After theJournal supported presidential candidateGrover Cleveland in the 1892 election, Smith was named asSecretary of the Interior by the victorious Cleveland. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelistMargaret Mitchell worked for theJournal from 1922 to 1926. Essential for the development of her 1936Gone with the Wind was the series of profiles of prominent Georgia Civil War generals she wrote forThe Atlanta Journal's Sunday magazine, the research for which, scholars believe, led her to her work on the novel. In 1922, theJournal founded one of the first radio broadcasting stations in the South,WSB. The radio station and the newspaper were sold in 1939 toJames Middleton Cox, founder of Cox Enterprises. TheJournal carried the motto "CoversDixie like the Dew".
Cox Enterprises bought theConstitution in June 1950, bringing both newspapers under one ownership and combining sales and administrative offices. Separate newsrooms were kept until 1982. Both newspapers continued to be published for another two decades, with much of the same content except for timely editing. TheJournal, an afternoon paper, led the morningConstitution until the 1970s when afternoon papers began to fall out of favor with subscribers. In November 2001, the two papers, once fierce competitors, merged to produce one daily morning paper,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The two papers had published a combined edition on weekends and holidays for years previously.
Before the merger, both papers planned to start TV stations:WSB-TV on channel 8 for theJournal, and WCON-TV on channel 2 for theConstitution. Only WSB got on the air, beginning in 1948 as the first TV station in theDeep South. It moved from channel 8 to WCON'sallotment on channel 2 in 1951 to avoid TV interference from the nearby channel 9. (WROM-TV since moved, leavingWGTV on 8, after it was also used by WLWA-TV, nowWXIA-TV 11.) This was also necessary to satisfyFederal Communications Commission (FCC) rules preventing the excessiveconcentration of media ownership, preventing the combined paper from running two stations.[clarification needed]
In 1989,Bill Dedman received thePulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting forThe Color of Money, his exposé on racial discrimination in mortgage lending, orredlining, by Atlanta banks.[17] The newspapers' editor,Bill Kovach, had resigned in November 1988 after the stories on banks and others had ruffled feathers in Atlanta and among corporate leadership, some of whom complained of a "take-no-prisoners" editorial approach.[18]
In 1993,Mike Toner received thePulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting forWhen Bugs Fight Back, his series about organisms and their resistance toantibiotics andpesticides.
In 2002, Julia Wallace was the first woman to become editor ofThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She was named Editor of the Year 2004 byEditor & Publisher magazine.[19]
Mike Luckovich won the Pulitzer Prize foreditorial cartooning a second time in 2006. He had first received it in 1995 underThe Atlanta Constitution banner.
The paper used to cover all 159counties in Georgia and the bordering counties of westernNorth Carolina, where many Atlantans vacation or have second homes. In addition, it had some circulation in other bordering communities, such asTallahassee, Florida, where theSunday Atlanta Journal-Constitution was available. Due to the downturn in the newspaper industry and competing media sources,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contracted distribution dramatically in the late 2000s to serve only the metro area.[20] From Q1 of 2007 to Q1 of 2010, daily circulation plunged over 44%.[21]
In August 2025, the newspaper announced it will stop publishing a print edition at the end of the year and go digital only.[5]
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is based in Midtown Atlanta. It previously had its headquarters inPerimeter Center, an office district ofDunwoody, Georgia.[22] Before that, theAJC headquarters were inDowntown Atlanta near theFive Points district.[23]
In August 2009, theAJC occupied less than 30 percent of its downtown building, becoming outdated and costly. Later that year, theAJC consolidated its printing operations by merging its downtown production center with itsGwinnett County facility. In 2010, the newspaper relocated its headquarters to leased offices in Dunwoody, a northern suburb of Atlanta.[22] In November 2010, the company donated its former downtown headquarters to the city of Atlanta, which plans to convert the building into a fire and police training academy.[23]
In February 2024, the newspaper announced it would return its headquarters to Midtown Atlanta after nearly 14 years, citing a desire "to be at the beating heart of the city" it is named for. The company signed a lease on 21,000 square feet of newsroom and studio space in the Promenade Central building on Peachtree Street, planning to complete its relocation by the end of the year.[24]
In 1996,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first newspaper to report onCentennial Olympic Park bombing heroRichard Jewell being accused of actually being the bomber, citing leaked information from theFederal Bureau of Investigation. Even after Jewell was cleared of any accusations by the FBI, theAJC refused to issue an apology and remains the only paper to have not retracted their story byKathy Scruggs andRon Martz falsely accusing him of terrorism. The court case regarding this has been dropped after the death of both Richard Jewell and the initial reporter. Jewell died not long after fromdiabetes due to poor eating habits that escalated after he was accused.[25]
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has four major sections daily. On Sundays, it has additional sections. The main section usually consists of Georgia, national, international, and business news. The Metro section includes major headlines from theMetro Atlanta area. The Metro section usually reports the weather forecast. The Sports section reports sports-related news. Before social media became popular, the Metro and Sports sections contained "The Vent" features, where readers expressed opinions about current events.[26] The Living section contains articles, recipes, reviews, movie times, and puzzles, includingSudoku, crossword puzzle, and word scramble, plus a full page of color comics daily. Comics are printed in a separate section in Sunday editions.
Pulitzer Prizes awarded to journalists at the Atlanta newspapers:[27]
1931,Public service,The Atlanta Constitution, for exposing graft in city government.
1948,Local reporting,George Goodwin,The Atlanta Journal, for exposing vote fraud in Telfair County during the 1946 gubernatorial campaign.
1959,Editorial writing,Ralph McGill,The Atlanta Constitution. The best known of 10 “editorials,” really front-page columns, was about the 1958Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple bombing.
1960,Local reporting under deadline pressure,Jack Nelson,The Atlanta Constitution, for exposing abuses atMilledgeville State Hospital for the insane.
1967,Editorial writing,Eugene Patterson,The Atlanta Constitution. The editorials discussed the ambush shooting ofJames Meredith,Julian Bond’s exclusion from the Georgia House of Representatives and other topics.
1988,Editorial cartooning,Doug Marlette,The Atlanta Constitution, shared withThe Charlotte Observer, where four of his 10 prize-winning cartoons were published.
1989,Investigative reporting,Bill Dedman,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The Color of Money,” a series about racial discrimination in lending practices in middle-income neighborhoods in metro Atlanta.
1993,Explanatory journalism,Mike Toner,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “When Bugs Fight Back,” a series about how organisms have developed resistance to antibiotics and pesticides.
1995,Editorial cartooning,Mike Luckovich,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for cartoons on topics including U.S. House SpeakerNewt Gingrich, basketball greatDominique Wilkins, and the1996 Summer Olympics mascot.
2006,Editorial cartooning, Mike Luckovich,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for cartoons on topics including U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq.
2007,Commentary,Cynthia Tucker,The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for editorial columns.
2007,History,Hank Klibanoff, managing editor ofThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for his book,The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, written withGene Roberts.
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