Sibilance and the South

While layoffs at the L.A. Times and Washington Post and the potential end of Sports Illustrated and Pitchfork are causing a lot of discussion about a crisis in journalism, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is still in hiring mode.

Yesterday it launched a new marketing campaign and push for subscribers called “for the Greater Atlanta.” It also unveiled its new slogan, heavy on sibilance:

“The Substance and Soul of the South.”

Having a slogan at all is a bit of a throwback to the paper’s early years when both the afternoon Journal, “Covers Dixie like the Dew,” and morning Constitution, “The South’s Standard Newspaper,” had a statewide circulation and national influence.

The moves are part of publisher Andrew Morse’s plan to transform the daily paper into a digital operation with an array of content, including an Atlanta Hip Hop documentary and Town Halls with Joe Manchin.

Having bought Axios for half a billion dollars in 2022, the paper’s owner Cox Enterprises is reportedly investing $100 million into Morse’s plan to get half a million digital subscribers by 2026.

This is still the billionaire owner model of newspaper ownership, as compared to being part of a chain or converting to a non-profit. But unlike the billionaire owners of the D.C. and L.A. legacy papers, Atlanta’s has had the same owner, the Cox Dynasty, for generations.

Cox has plenty of money, even if the paper hasn’t been profitable for some time, and their businesses, foundations, and institutions have deep ties to Atlanta. They may have more patience to see Morse’s plan through than L.A. Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, but billionaire media ownership is still a kind of oligarchy, benevolent or not.

L.A. Times editor Kevin Merida recently resigned reportedly after its owner tried to interfere with a news article. Cox has dominated Atlanta media for so long no one outside of social media seems to even asks whether the owners interfere with news coverage, but throughout its long ownership history such clashes have occurred.

The AJC is hiring reporters to place in other cities in the state hoping to woo digital subscribers. Certainly, a news consumer in Macon or Savannah might decide to subscribe based on some local news and the paper’s larger state coverage, but will that audience growth come at the expense of the legacy, Gannett or McClatchy-owned papers there? And would that just delay a necessary transition to non-profit newspapers?

Morse has said in interviews he’s adapting the NYT’s model to a regional focus and thinks there’s an audience if the AJC can become South’s leading news source. But being the region’s top dog was the L.A. Times’ plan.

And there’s still distrust of the media. The right has criticized mainstream media for decades now and built up a parallel conservative media ecosystem, as in the Daily Caller now getting scoops in the Fani Willis story.

But the AJC has critics on the left too.

Atlanta will need alternatives to Cox outlets and Georgia overall needs independent coverage of the media itself.

The AJC appointing a Public Editor seems unlikely.

My initial reaction to the “For a Greater Atlanta” campaign is that it sounds a lot like a City of Atlanta PR campaign. It also echoes the name of former Senator Kelly Loeffler’s “Greater Georgia” political project.