Logo for Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Photo Credit: AJC
On Thursday, Aug. 28, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) announced that after 157 years, it would print its last physical newspaper at the end of this year.
In a letter to subscribers, AJC President and Publisher Andrew Morse 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.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began as two rival newspapers, The Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Journal, founded in 1868 and 1883, respectively. The two newspapers came under the ownership of Cox Enterprises in 1950 and were merged into one in 2001.
The paper was printed through two World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement and countless other historical events.
While it is a tragedy to lose something that has been in print since the Reconstruction era, this shift to digital-only news is proof of an undeniable truth in the journalism industry: print media is dying.
In a 2024 poll, Pew Research Center found that while 58% of adults in the U.S. prefer getting their news through digital devices, i.e., smartphones, computers and tablets, only 4% preferred getting their news in print.
For many people, smartphones, the internet and social media have rendered newspapers almost completely obsolete. Why wait to read the daily paper when you have fresh, breaking news right at your fingertips at all hours of the day?
Newspapers have unfortunately become a relic of the past. Unlike other forms of physical media that have seen a resurgence in recent years such as CDs, vinyl and comics, newspapers don’t seem to have any staying power in America’s current cultural climate.
While progressing into the future, the AJC runs the risk of leaving some of its older subscribers in the past. Many AJC readers 60 and older will likely find that their news will be much less accessible than it had been for the past 157 years.
The end of print is not the end of journalism, however.
The rise of digital journalism has also led to many benefits to the industry.
For example, the use of multimedia and interactive elements such as charts, graphs, videos and maps has allowed news stories to transcend the page and become more informative than ever before.
It is also easier than ever for anyone who cares about their community to go out and find an interesting story to tell. Journalism has never been more accessible than it is today.
The death of print may appear as the death of journalism itself, but in reality, journalism is undergoing a metamorphosis that, while bittersweet, is likely for the best.
