Atlanta Journal Constitution Moves To Suburbs

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is moving to the suburbs, abandoning its downtown space that the company described Monday as outdated and in need of substantial funds to maintain and operate.

Cox Enterprises Inc. said Monday the move to the spot about 10 miles away would be made early next year over a period of months. The new location is less than two miles from the company's headquarters.

The company stopped printing the paper downtown last year and moved all production to suburban Gwinnett County. As a result, newspaper operations occupied less than 30 percent of the downtown space.

"This move will reduce controllable costs and help the company remain viable and focused on our core mission of journalism, while continuing to serve the community and provide advertising solutions," publisher Michael Joseph said.

The new headquarters will be in the Perimeter Center area in DeKalb County.

Joseph said the newspaper will maintain its Capitol bureau and add an in-town bureau for reporters but details were not worked out.

The downtown facility is on nearly six acres owned by Cox Enterprises, which said it has no plans to sell the property,

Cox owns nearly 350 acres of property within the Atlanta city limits where it operates WSB-TV, five radio stations and three of its Manheim auto auctions.

Comments

[sbmulqueen]

Full and fair disclosure: I live in the CITY of Atlanta, and am somewhat of an intown snob. This move sickens me. I am not saying that, however, to disparage the suburbs, but just as an indication of how everyone gives up on the cities.

And for everyone who says Atlanta is just a big sprawling area, that's true geographically, but there is a big difference between metro Atlanta (5 million people) and city of Atlanta (500 K people). The demographics, money and politics of the city are very different than the suburbs, and that's true whether it's Perimeter Center or Alpharetta or other areas vs. Atlanta. That's like saying people in Oakland and outskirts live in SF.

If Coke leaves I'm outta here.

[Ontariocentric]

The MAJORITY of what we know as Atlanta is suburbs. The city itself is not built on a grid with a central core - like most Northern cities, it's just pockets of neighborhoods scattered all about and linked together by roads. It's still a major and populous city, but most of it's residents live in low-density communities. So this news comes as no surprise. I'm just surprised the AJC is still around. I thought they were going under a few years ago. Plus, it's kind of a crappy paper in general, it's quality of reporting is about as good as the local corporate cable news shows.

[wm1066]

I used to read the Rant in the Journal but then they started to move it around making it hard to find. Can anyone tell me if they still have it ? I haven't went to that site in three years. I do like Cynthia Tucker though, is she still writing for the Journal?

[RustyPatina]

Do you mean the vent? Still had it last I looked. Mostly meaningless drivel, IMHO.

[wm1066]

Your right , its the vent. Wonder why I thought it was the rant??? When I read it it was before Huffington post , guess it was more than three years ago.

[sbmulqueen]

The Vent? It's always in the Metro section, inside lower page. It's also online. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not. Cynthia Tucker is still with AJC (please don't call it the Journal). She is amazing. Did you see her smackdown Michelle Malkin?

[cldanielsjr]

To say this is a move to the Perimeter Center is a move to the suburbs is not correct. Atlanta is a large, sprawling, growing city. This was suburbs about 30 years ago. A better way to state the move is that they are moving to north Atlanta. Even wikipedia defines the Perimeter Center as 'a major edge city within metro Atlanta'.
But, if you think the Bronx is a suburb of Manhattan the move might be to the suburbs.

[Scoppertop]

True. The Perimeter area where Cox's offices are located is considered close-in... the last dirt roads were paved back in the 40's and 50's.