The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily
newspaper in
Atlanta, Georgia,
USA and
its suburbs. The
AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of
Cox Enterprises. The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the
merger between the
Atlanta Journal and the
Atlanta Constitution . The
staff was combined in
1982, and all separate delivery of the morning
Constitution and afternoon
Journal ended in
2001 [
1]. Circulation is now 460,672 for weekdays and 620,782 on Sundays [
2].Since 2003, the paper has also published
Access Atlanta , a free tabloid-sized entertainment paper.
Subsequent to the staff consolidation of 1982, the afternoon
Journal maintained a center-right editorial stance while the editorials and op-eds in the morning
Constitution was reliably liberal. When the editions combined in 2001 the editorial page staffs also merged, and the editorials and op-eds have attempted to strike a more "balanced" tone. However, most of the paper's editorial stances have been closer to those of the old
Constitution. The combined paper endorsed
John Kerry for
president in
2004; in
2000 the
Constitution endorsed
Al Gore while the
Journal endorsed
George W. Bush. It also harshly condemned Bush's decision to allow the
National Security Agency to spy on phone conversations in the United States
without a warrant by calling his actions a "clear, present danger."
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Constitution building 1890 |
The
Atlanta Constitution was first published on
June 16,
1868 and was such a force that by
1871 it had killed off the only Atlanta paper to survive the
American Civil War, the
Daily Intelligencer.In
1876 Captain
Evan Howell (a former
Intelligencer city editor) purchased a controlling interest and became its
editor-in-chief.That same year,
Joel Chandler Harris began writing the paper and soon invented the character of
Uncle Remus, a black storyteller. During the 1880s,
Constitution editor
Henry W. Grady was a spokesman for the "
New South," encouraging industrial development in the South.
Ralph McGill, editor for the
Constitution in the 1940s was one of the few southern newspaper editors to support the
American Civil Rights Movement. From the 1970s until his death in 1994,
Lewis Grizzard was a popular humor columnist for the
Constitution, portraying Southern "
redneck" culture with a mixture of ridicule and respect. Other editors of the
Atlanta Constitution include
J. Reginald Murphy.
The
Constitution won a
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1959 for Ralph McGill's editoral "A Church, A School....", and in 1967 for
Eugene Patterson's editorials. The paper won a
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1931 for exposing corruption at the local level. Jack Nelson won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1960 for local reporting, exposing abuses at Milledgeville State Hospital for the mentally ill. The
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning went to the
Constitiution's Doug Marlette in the 1988 and
Mike Luckovich in 1995 and 2006.
The
Atlanta Journal was established in 1883. Founder E.F. Hoge sold the paper to Atlanta lawyer
Hoke Smith in 1887. After the
Journal supported Presidential candidate
Grover Cleveland in the 1892 election, Smith was named as
Secretary of the Interior by the victorious Cleveland.
Margaret Mitchell worked for the
Journal before she wrote her famous 1936 novel
Gone with the Wind. In 1922, the
Journal founded Atlanta's first
radio station,
WSB. The radio station and the newspaper were sold in 1939 to
James Middleton Cox, founder of what would become Cox Enterprises. The
Journal carried the motto "Covers Dixie like the Dew".
Cox Enterprises bought the
Constitution in June 1950, bringing both newspapers under one ownership and combining sales and administrative offices. Separate newsrooms were kept until 1982, though both papers continued to be published. The
Journal, an afternoon paper, led the morning
Constitution until the 1970s, when afternoon papers began to fall out of favor with subscribers. In November 2001, the two papers, which were 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.
In 1989, Bill Dedman received the
Pulitzer Prize for "The Color of Money," his expose on racial discrimination in mortgage lending, or
redlining, by Atlanta banks. [
3]. The newspapers' editor, Bill Kovach, had resigned in November
1988 after the stories on banks and others had ruffled feathers in Atlanta. (see
Anne Cox Chambers).
In 1993, Mike Toner received the
Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting for "When Bugs Fight Back," his series about organisms and their resistance to
antibiotics and
pesticides.
Julia Wallace was named the first female editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 2002.In 2005 she was named Editor of the Year in 2005 by Editor and Publisher Magazine .
In 2003, the AJC launched
Access Atlanta to compete with
alternative weeklies such as Atlanta's
Creative Loafing.
Access Atlanta is given away for free in sidewalk newsbins and also appears as an insert in Thursday editions of the AJC.
Mike Luckovich again won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2006, an award he had previously received in 1995 under the
Atlanta Constitution banner.
*Perry, Chuck. 2004. "Atlanta Journal-Constitution".
New Georgia Encyclopedia Georgia Humanities Council. [
4]
*American Society of Editors Mag. March 7,2003.
Editor and Publisher Mag. Jan.24,2005
*
Official website
