The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will stop providing a print edition at year’s end and go completely digital, a dramatic change for a storied newspaper founded shortly after the Civil War.
The decision will make Atlanta the largest U.S. metro area without a printed daily newspaper, although some smaller metro Atlanta newspapers continue printing.
Publisher Andrew Morse said in his Thursday announcement that the news organization will aim to expand its audience as it continues to report the news using online, audio and video products.
“The fact is, many more people engage with our digital platforms and products today than with our print edition, and that shift is only accelerating,” Morse wrote in a letter to subscribers posted on the Journal-Constitution’s website. The AJC has about 115,000 total subscribers, of whom 75,000 are online only; Morse has set a goal of gaining 500,000 online subscribers.
The newspaper is privately owned by descendants of the Cox family. Former Ohio Gov. James Cox bought The Atlanta Journal in 1939 and The Atlanta Constitution in 1950. The Atlanta Constitution was founded in 1868, only a few years after the Civil War left Atlanta in ruins. It became the platform of famous editors including New South booster Henry Grady and anti-segregationist Ralph McGill.
Morse said The Journal-Constitution will offer a new mobile app by the end of the year and will provide an electronic replica edition for subscribers who prefer the experience of the paper edition.
Many smaller newspapers have stopped printing, while others have cut back their days of publication. For example, The Tampa Bay Times in Florida prints only two days a week. But it’s been unusual for major metropolitan dailies to entirely abandon print. The highest profile example is The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey. Once the state’s top-selling newspaper, it stopped printing in February. It’s owned by the Newhouse family, which also stopped printing other sizable newspapers in New Jersey and Alabama.
The Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University counted 1,033 daily newspapers in 2024, down from 1,472 in 2005, and 650 digital-only news sites.
Some still see profits to be made with print. Decaturish, which covers the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, started as an online-only publication but launched a weekly print edition after it was bought last year by a suburban publisher. Dan Whisenhunt, the editor and founder of Decaturish, said some advertisers prefer print publications.
“They’re going to spend that money on print and they might as well spend it with us,” Whisenhunt said, saying that the end of a printed newspaper could create new opportunities for others. “Sustainability in journalism requires multiple revenue streams,” he said.
The Cox family has invested in The Journal-Constitution since Morse, a former CNN executive, became publisher in 2023. The Journal-Constitution has hired reporters in the Georgia cities of Athens, Macon and Savannah, expanded an offering focused on Black culture, and pushed new audio and video offerings. The business also moved into a new office in Atlanta’s Midtown area, returning inside the city limits from an office in the northern suburbs.
Company executives said the print edition was still profitable, after they outsourced printing to another newspaper in Gainesville, Georgia, in 2021. When Morse came on board, he paused a plan to curtail the print edition. But now the time is right, he said.
“We will begin the new year as a fully digital organization, committed, as always, to being the most essential and engaging news source for the people of Atlanta, Georgia and the South,” Morse wrote.