The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has hired Thomas Lake as a senior enterprise reporter. In this role, Lake will roam the city and state, seeking out stories that are unexpected or uplifting. Already he has written about an intriguing declaration of love on Stone Mountain’s walk-up trail, an armed comedian keeping watch at a neighborhood grocery store, and a heroic fisherman who drowned in the Chattahoochee River after helping save a 4-year-old girl.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Lake comes to his hometown newsroom after a distinguished 24-year career spanning newspapers, magazines and a TV network. After growing up in DeKalb County, he began his career writing obituaries and photographing car wrecks at The Press-Sentinel in Jesup, Georgia, before covering school boards for The Salem News in Massachusetts and writing features and crime stories at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.
In 2008, Lake took a job at Atlanta Magazine, producing human-interest dispatches that showcased his talent for immersive storytelling. From there he joined the staff of Sports Illustrated, where four of his features were anthologized in the annual Best American Sports Writing collection, and his long-form narrative “The Boy They Couldn’t Kill” was hailed among the 60 greatest stories in the magazine’s six-decade history.
From 2015 to 2025, Lake was a senior writer at CNN, where he chronicled the 2016 presidential campaign in his book Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything, produced multi-part series on police-involved shootings and the life and death of James Brown, and developed the eight-episode podcast The James Brown Mystery. His pandemic-era essay series “The Distance” and his narrative feature on a wrongfully-convicted man who became a watercolor painter further solidified his reputation for empathetic yet unflinching journalism.
Lake said he looks forward to walking through the city or driving through the country with a reporter’s notebook and two fresh Pilot G-2 pens, keeping his eyes open for stories that surprise the AJC’s readers.
AJC Editor-in-Chief Leroy Chapman Jr. said that Lake is a key hire. “Thomas’s decades of narrative flair, rigorous reporting and proven ability to uncover stories that resonate nationwide make him an ideal addition to the AJC. He strengthens our commitment to accountability journalism and enhances our mission to serve Atlanta and the state with fearless, impactful reporting.”
Lake holds a bachelor’s degree from Gordon College in Massachusetts. He lives in Decatur with his wife, Sara, and their four children. An active member of Cellebration Fellowship in Clarkston, he enjoys pickup basketball and playing music in his free time.
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