As of Monday morning, the Atlanta Journal Constitution ceased to be available to home subscribers in Pickens County. One Progress staffer spotted a truck loading up street-side paper boxes for the Atlanta daily to haul them away to wherever such things go when they’re no longer needed. Apparently the paper is not going to be sold any longer in store racks here either.
Pickens is one of 22 counties (including Dawson) spiraling beyond the metro area and now cut off in this latest move by Georgia’s capital city newspaper, a standard that once “covered Dixie like the dew”. This is the third reduction in circulation over the past year by the AJC. Gilmer County deliveries stopped earlier.
According to published information (posted on-line by the AJC and in a trade publication), cutting circulation to these latest 22 counties only lowers overall AJC sales by about 5 percent. Some 156 full and part time employees were also axed in the move.
The paper, founded in 1868 as the Atlanta Constitution, tagged the usual combination of a poor economy and the “business potential” online as motivation behind the change.
Since the move was announced, several calls, letters, e-mails and face-to-face questions and suggestions have come to the Progress. These varied some: “I bet your glad to lose that competition.” “Why are YOU doing this?” “Are you going to become a daily now?” “Can you start including a television guide in your paper?*”
First and foremost, we are sorry to see the AJC shut off to us locally. Our staff here thumbed through a daily copy that usually landed in the middle of our production room floor to be picked up by anyone with a few minutes to kill.
The Progress and AJC were in no way competitors. People would occasionally joke they hated for us to catch them reading the Atlanta paper. Not at all. It provided the best source of news on Atlanta, across the state and in Washington––areas the Progress simply doesn’t cover. Conversely, Atlanta reporters were never found at local city council meetings, interviewing someone in Hill City or publishing birthday news.
The loss of the Atlanta paper’s print edition will hurt Pickens County. People will be less informed about state government and statewide issues, and that is no small problem.
But just because the AJC won’t be flung this far for now doesn’t mean the Progress can hire more reporters and add Atlanta content. The AJC couldn’t do that profitably, and neither can we, even if we wanted to drastically expand––which we don’t.
For the record, we didn’t compete with the AJC for advertisers either. When was the last time you saw a Macy’s ad in the Progress or a Jasper Drug Store ad in the AJC?
As to queries on whether we could do something to stop the change or why we’re doing this, the Progress and AJC have no connection at all except we both operate in the same industry. We weren’t consulted or asked about their change.
Several people asked us to work a deal with the Atlanta company so we could deliver their paper. But that wouldn’t work, as we only employ a single delivery driver, and that’s just one afternoon a week for a trip to the Talking Rock and Fairmount Post Offices. Like most weekly papers, we rely on the Post Office for delivery. Also (in response to several suggestions), it is our understanding that bulk copies of the Atlanta paper will not be available here for aspiring delivery drivers.
Perhaps the AJC’s online edition will fill the need. But there is just something about holding a newspaper in your hands that will make computerized delivery hard to get used to. It’s our bet (and research shows) that less news will be read when it is only available in digital form.
Unfortunately, the loss of print readers is a serious problem for all big daily newspapers and for anyone who desires an informed public. Having newspapers, from big dailies to community papers like us, is a valuable thing for citizens of a republic. Any loss of access to a source of independent information is a sad event for us all.
* We will look at some syndicated features to see if there is enough demand to include them in the Progress. Please e-mail to tell us the comics, horoscopes, or television listings you would like to see.
E-mail
dpool@pickensprogress.com
or phone 706-253-2457 |
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