Old AJC building donated to City of Atlanta

Headline on this is for another story, but ... AJC building at 72 Marietta Street is being donated to the city, which will convert it into office, training and exhibition space.

http://www.gapress.org/news/coxbuilding.html

I guess it's not unusual for companies to do this sort of thing, but it strikes me as odd that a news company would do it.

 

Cox didn't need the money, obviously.

 

Tax implications, my friends. Cox can benefit directly more from the donation of the building than from the revenue it would earn from any sale of the building after paying taxes.

 

My paper owns a big, empty, five-story building next to our current newsroom. Apparently our tiny staff used to nearly fill parts of it during better times. It's been for sale/lease for a while. I think there was someone briefly renting out the bottom floor at one point but that didn't last long. I can imagine why giving it away for tax purposes was probably the smartest move the AJC could make at this point.

 

I get the tax implications. Business is business. Just strikes me as weird that they'd give it to an institution they'd devoted untold man hours and money to covering. But then, I guess there is no institution -- of government, higher learning or otherwise -- in Atlanta that wouldn't fall into that category.

 

But are the people in positions to make that decision for Cox and the AJC the same as the people in the newsrooms who concern themselves much with journalistic conflicts of interest?

 

By the same argument, how many of your advertisers do you cover in some form?

Business and editorial must remain separate, but as long as they do, you can't limit the business side. We're already hurting for funds.

 

Because that East City Hall idea of Atlanta's — in the old Sears Roebuck building on Ponce (IIRC) — went over so well.

 

Again, I get that. Certainly valid. This feels weird nonetheless.