ATLANTA — Doug Franklin, executive vice president of Cox Newspapers, has been named publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He succeeds 51-year-old John Mellott, who is retiring after 22 years with Cox, the company said Monday.

Franklin, also 51, is a former publisher at Cox papers in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Dayton, Ohio. He starts as publisher March 1 and will remain as executive vice president, Cox Enterprises said.

"He will bring fresh thinking and energy to the job while he continues the important work of transforming our newspapers in print and digitally," said Sandy Schwartz, president of Cox Media Group, which oversees all the Atlanta-based company's media holdings.

Franklin spent most of his 30-year Cox career in the company's Ohio operations, rising to president and chief executive of Cox Ohio Publishing. He moved to The Palm Beach Post and led a major reorganization there last year that included the announcement that 300 workers would be cut from Palm Beach Newspapers Inc., about 22 percent of the company's work force.

Mellott, the Journal-Constitution's publisher since 2004, has held various leadership roles at Cox, including president of its Dent Wizard business and vice president of business development for Cox Enterprises.

As publisher, he led the Journal-Constitution through a series of business and newsroom reorganizations, including a July announcement it would cut 200 jobs.

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It was the newspaper's second downsizing in two years _ in February 2007, the Journal-Constitution reduced its circulation area and offered contract buyouts that about 40 newspaper employees accepted.

Cox's financial woes continued last year with an August announcement that it would sell its Valpak direct coupon mailing business, the Austin American-Statesman and five other community newspapers in Texas. It also planned to sell other community papers in Colorado and North Carolina, saying the proceeds from all the sales would pay down debt.

Cox said then that it generated about 80 percent of its $15 billion in annual revenue from sources outside advertising-supported media businesses such as newspaper, television and radio.

In a memo to Journal-Constitution employees, Mellott wrote, "I am confident Doug, with the excellent team in place, will keep us moving forward. ... For me, it is time to turn the page and begin anew."

The newspaper has about 5,700 full- and part-time employees. It reported an average six-day circulation of 280,000 and a Sunday circulation of 465,000 for the six-month period that ended on Sept. 30.

Cox, a privately held company, owns newspapers in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.