AJC goes all digital

[Inky_Wretch]

No more print editions at all.

https://www.ajc.com/business/2025/0...y-digital-publication-phase-out-print-dec-31/

 

[FileNotFound]

They finally pulled the trigger. Wow.

 

[Meat Slapping Sound]

My dad is going to be very upset. Reading the physical AJC is part of the morning routine he has had for as long as I've been alive.

On the other hand, I've only picked up a physical copy in the last decade because Georgia finally won a national title and I wanted something to frame.

The AJC was my dream job when I got out of college, and I'm glad I got a few things published in there before this point. It's a surprising move, but I can't say it's the wrong one.

 

[dixiehack]

My grandkids will be lucky to arrive in a country with more than 3-4 daily newspapers. It might be even be down to a two-horse race with the NYT and WSJ at that point.

From 2023. I still believe it and was under no illusion the AJC would be one of the print survivors. But this still astonishes me.

 

[SixToe]

I read about six or seven papers every Sunday when in college decades ago, and 3-4 daily, with the AJC being one of the two biggies. Loved diving into everything.

Last time I saw one it reminded me of an old person lying in a hospital bed, lights dimmed, machines making faint sounds or an occasional beep, clinging on but slowly fading away.

 

[playthrough]

I don't blink anymore at going-all-digital announcements but this hits different. My mom told me I learned to read in part by sitting next to my dad at breakfast reading headlines from the Atlanta Constitution (before the AJC merger), and as I got older my love of sportswriting was sparked with that section. Mort, Kindred, Mark Bradley, Tony Barnhart, so many others. And of course the great Lewis Grizzard.

 

[nickp]

Sad to see that another big newspaper is moving strictly to digital

 

[Inky_Wretch]

What are scholars and historians going to do 100 years from now when they want to learn about the 2020s and there are no print editions of the newspapers to scour? Will the website archives still be around? I doubt it - based on my old shop nuking its online archives because of server space.

 

[dixiehack]

What are scholars and historians going to do 100 years from now when they want to learn about the 2020s and there are no print editions of the newspapers to scour? Will the website archives still be around? I doubt it - based on my old shop nuking its online archives because of server space.

And this will be a really important decade for historians to study and interpret, assuming all the source materials aren’t in Mandarin by that point. Journalism is digging the memory hole for the people who will desperately want all this forgotten.

 

[LanceyHoward]

What are scholars and historians going to do 100 years from now when they want to learn about the 2020s and there are no print editions of the newspapers to scour? Will the website archives still be around? I doubt it - based on my old shop nuking its online archives because of server space.

I would hope the local public library would keep a digital record. Sever space is not that expensive and the back editions of the local paper are normally the history of the community.

 

[Batman]

What are scholars and historians going to do 100 years from now when they want to learn about the 2020s and there are no print editions of the newspapers to scour? Will the website archives still be around? I doubt it - based on my old shop nuking its online archives because of server space.

I've long speculated that we're headed for a second Dark Ages simply because all of the media from this period — when, ironically, there is probably more of it than there has been in human history — is ephemeral and will vanish when the servers are taken offline. Or it can be changed on a whim to erase "problematic" themes, like we're seeing with movies and TV shows.
It's not just newspapers, either. You're seeing it with all sorts of electronic media. I'm glad there seems to be a growing preference for physical media among Gen Z. I was hoping it might lead to at least a brief revival for printed newspapers. But there are probably a hundred other factors pushing newspapers away from that.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

From 2023. I still believe it and was under no illusion the AJC would be one of the print survivors. But this still astonishes me.

I believed the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette would be one of the last to go because the state is chock full of old people. They got up to No. 40 in the nation in circulation at one point. But nope, they became one of the early adopters of E-pages.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

A lot of the stuff that might be archived is behind paywalls

 

[Inky_Wretch]

 

[Jake from State Farm]

When I covered college football in the 80s I spent a lot of time in the Atlanta airport and always got a Sunday AJC. Even if it was the early edition there was so much to read.

 

[John]

I was just telling my wife about what a powerhouse the AJC sports section was in the '80s and '90s. I'm sure other sections were good, too, but the sports staff was outstanding.

 

[dixiehack]

Whoever wrote the front page teasers rail 20 years ago was a comedy genius. Just hit after hit while still doing the job of telling you what was inside where.

 

[SixToe]

What are scholars and historians going to do 100 years from now when they want to learn about the 2020s and there are no print editions of the newspapers to scour? Will the website archives still be around? I doubt it - based on my old shop nuking its online archives because of server space.

My old paper had a wonderful microfiche collection dating I think 70 or more years. We also had physical copies that went back a bit, at least a year if not a couple.

When they sold the building after firing everyone and keeping the skeletal staff to rebuild, all of that was going to be thrown away. IMO just a clear example of the stupidity and lack of foresight at the time: "Eh, screw all that. No one wants that old stuff." Fortunately the public library took the microfiche and saved it.

But 100 years from now none of that will exist, and the websites all will have been through mutliple cleanings and losses. In regard to history, we will be back to primitive times of The Elders handing down stories that the Young Ones find incomprehensible and impossible to believe.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

When I covered college football in the 80s I spent a lot of time in the Atlanta airport and always got a Sunday AJC. Even if it was the early edition there was so much to read.

Given Hartsfield-Jackson's penchant for delays, would it surprise anyone if AJC didn't fill a lot of time for a lot of travelers stuck in that airport?

 

[MileHigh]

I was just telling my wife about what a powerhouse the AJC sports section was in the '80s and '90s. I'm sure other sections were good, too, but the sports staff was outstanding.

No doubt. The L.A. Times in the 1980s and 1990s was spectacular. I ate up every word. Its coverage of the 1984 Olympics could not be beat.