Challenges and changes ahead for the AJC

First, thank you for reading this newspaper. For generations, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has played a vital role in our community — informing, engaging, challenging. We’ve made a difference, but you have made it possible by becoming informed citizens and supporting our business.

We’ve never needed you more. We can only be a strong, free press — beholden to no one — if we are profitable. Right now, the AJC — and other newspapers across the country — are struggling financially.

For years, the AJC was sustained by classified and retail advertising. This revenue allowed us to deliver the newspaper to you 365 days a year at a very reasonable price. But as people turned to the Internet, classified listings declined. Our retail advertisers have been forced by current significant economic challenges to reduce their ad spending.

This is our challenge. We know you depend on us more than ever. The latest data from the research firm Scarborough shows that about 2 million people in Atlanta read the AJC every week. We provide more in-depth local news and information than any other source. We also know you continue to rely on us for the best shopping information from our advertisers. In these tough economic times, you want to spend your money wisely, and our advertisers help you do so.

So … how do we face these financial challenges? It won’t be easy. Just like you, we have to live within our limited means.

No business can lose money for long, and we are working day and night to turn this around. We are making difficult decisions: we have cut staff, frozen pay, reduced our circulation area and taken a sharp pencil to all our business costs.

We’re listening to you more than ever. In the past year we heard from thousands of readers — through surveys, focus groups and other feedback channels — who have guided the changes we’ve made so far. We know that we’re at our best when we act on what we learn from our readers.

We can’t do everything we want or everything you want. We’ve already made some tough choices. More are coming:

• In mid-March, the Tuesday-Saturday Business section will merge with an expanded A section. The Sunday section will remain a stand-alone.

• The three Sunday feature sections (Living & Style, Arts & Leisure and Travel) will be combined into one.

• The current TVWeek supplement will be replaced with our own stand-alone, full-color TV section.

These choices weren’t easy, but we made them by balancing our financial needs against what we have learned about what you, our readers, value most. We also listened to what you told us about what you expect from our daily and Sunday newspapers:

Daily, you want a quick and efficient read that gets you up to speed on the day’s news. Sunday, you want a more leisurely read that tells you the why behind the news and provides you enjoyment and learning.

In both daily and Sunday, you believe we play an important role in building a stronger community. We have dramatically stepped up our investigative efforts. We’ve added two business columnists and made great strides to simplify and better organize the newspaper. We have redoubled our efforts to present important local news while still providing the national and international coverage you want.

In May, we will introduce a redesign that makes the newspaper easier and more enjoyable to read.

We also have worked hard to create news pages that are free of bias and opinion pages that are balanced. We have reached out to the community to select a replacement for retiring conservative columnist Jim Wooten. We’ve heard from nearly 200 candidates and have winnowed the list down to about a dozen finalists. Later this week, we’ll share sample columns by the finalists on ajc.com.

As we continue changing, we want to have a dialogue with you. Next week, you’ll hear from our senior vice president of revenue about what he and his team are doing to offer more options to advertisers. Then, the following week, you’ll hear from our editor, explaining more specifically the content changes ahead.

We want your guidance as we move ahead. I look forward to working with you all to build a very successful future for this newspaper and this community. Please let us know what you think by e-mailing me at tellus@ajc.com.