AJC: 'We are transforming our company' - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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There, according to a sourcee insidethe newspaper, they were told to expect significant bureau closings and consolidationa in the near The bureau reporters got the news from Editoe Julia Wallace. The expected changes at the AJC come at a time whenthe nation' s newspaper industry has been shaken by layoffs, buyoutsx and takeover bids at media companies such as and the formefr Newspapers are struggling to reinvent themselves by investint in their online identitiee and evolving their business models. Faced with eroding circulation and online competitors eatingy intoad revenue, the newspaper business is havingh its toughest time in 50 years.
The AJC is buffered from some of these pressurea because it is owned bya private, family-runj company, , rather than impatient public stockholders. But Atlanta'w hometown paper still faces the industrywide challenges of slipping circulation and brutal competition foradvertising dollars. In a Dec. 4 AJC Publisher John C. Mellott would not comment directlyh about any upcoming but he said the papet always evaluates its strategies forcommunityh coverage. "This truly is one of the most dynami markets inthe country, and so you have to look at those patterns and craft a newspaper that is reflectiver of those changes," said Mellott.
Mellott acknowledgee the industry overallis troubled. "It's no secret the shape our industryis in," he said. "Az a whole, our industry is wringing its wondering about the future ofjournaliskm ... anxiety-ridden over the futurs business model." "I won't tell you we'vew got it all figured out at the AJC," Mellotyt told the Chronicle, "but I will tell you we are bettetr positionedthan most. And I will tell you that we are very aggressivelgy looking forward for the notback ... We are transformintg our company, just as consumers' media consumption has been transformed." Daily newspaper circulationh isfalling nationwide.
Nearly every major U.S. daily suffered circulation declinesthis year, according to the most recentt report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It showedx the AJC's circulation droppeed 3.47 percent weekdays and 8.1 percent on Nationally, spending on print advertising in local newspapers wasdown 3.7 percen in the first nine months of 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Ad revenue growth is predicted to slow further in according to forecasts from media buyer In order to navigate this hostilsenew landscape, AJC executives have adoptesd a three-prong strategy: focus on publishingt an excellent daily aggressively embrace the Internet and continue to buildf a portfolio of products to grow the company's combines audience, according to Mellott.
For the new Skirt Magazine has a distributionof 100,000 and Mundo Hispanici has a readership of almost 120,000. Newspapers acros the nation have reduced stafr in order keepcosts down, and the AJC is one of the few that has not resortex to significant layoffs, say industry experts. the paper has controlled costs withothef measures. Mellott said the paper does not have an officialkhiring freeze, but has been "shifting resources internallu for the past few years.
" Wheneve r possible, internal candidates are selected for job openings, he The paper also has thinned its editorial staff through attrition -- the businese desk is one example -- although Mellott wouldn't specifty how many vacated positions have gone unfilled. "Thd basic question is how to reducse costs without harming the basic news valued of the producttoo much," said Conradf Fink, a former reporter and vice president at the who now teachesw journalism at The University of "How do we cut get over this bad patch and stil maintain the vitality of the publication?
" Staffing -- and staffingv reductions -- are a key part of that delicate "When you have fewer people handling the copy fewer people reporting on the subject, the amount of new and verifiedd documented information that you're able to publish each day declines," said Bill former executive editor of the AJC who is the foundint chairman of the Committee of Concerned "It makes for thinner storiesa and the public recognizes that righg away." Jack Driscoll, formef editor and managing editorf of The Boston Globe, agrees.
"Io think there is a dilution of quality and the first person to recognize that isthe reader, so they start to go said Driscoll, who is now editor-in-residence at the MIT Media Lab.