‘Digital is real time, print is lifetime’: Farewells to the paper AJC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will print its final edition on Dec. 31, closing a 157-year chapter even as the newsroom doubles down on a digital future.
But inside and around the venerable institution, another story is unfolding: a chorus of veterans who built the paper — on copy desks and carrier routes, in pressrooms, bureaus and features sections — pausing to say goodbye to the thud on the lawn, the rumble of the presses, the ink that smudged fingers and white linen blouses.
In these reflections, retirees and longtime staffers remember “bulldog” editions, stop-the-presses sprints, framed front pages and clipped bylines tucked into family scrapbooks.
They recall the logistics of two papers becoming one, the community that gathered around a tangible product and the pride of handing a freshly printed front page to a reader on a morning after history was made.
Their memories testify to what print made possible — ritual, permanence, a shared civic object — and to the people who made it daily. This is their goodbye to paper.
Moni Basu
1990-2009: Started at the Constitution as a copy editor, assistant national editor and senior reporter.
I got to stop the presses two times when I was the front-page editor, first of the Constitution and later of the combined newspapers. Funny thing is, I don’t even remember why we stopped the press run on those two nights. It must have been for really big breaking news.
What I do remember is the adrenaline gushing through my veins as I hurtled down to the bowels of the building at 72 Marietta St. carrying a poster board that read “STOP THE PRESSES!” I held it up to the print shop manager because, of course, you couldn’t hear a thing down there when the broadsheet presses began rumbling and spitting out thousands and thousands of copies of the paper.
Ah, the smell of fresh ink and the glorious smudges on my fingers, and sometimes on my face and on my just-laundered white linen blouse. I miss it. I miss the sound of the Sunday paper landing with a thud in the yard.
I miss savoring every section, a cup of coffee in hand. It was a ritual that I would allow very few things to interrupt. I miss cutting out the stories I wrote and keeping the clips that would yellow with the years.
I’m not even sure why I am saving them — just that I can’t seem to throw them away.
Kay Powell
1993-2009, mostly as obituaries editor.
For 13 years I got to write about extraordinary ordinary people. The paper’s obits section was a destination for readers.
Obits in print are available to everyone, especially readers who do not have access to modern technology. Families buried their dead with a copy of their AJC obituary. They blew up copies of the obituary to display at funerals.
Funeral preachers who didn’t know the deceased well quoted AJC obits to bring the dead back to life. Copies of AJC obits circulated literally around the world. I found one AJC obituary reprinted in Singapore’s The Straits Times.
AJC obits are cut out and preserved in family Bibles. Readers bought extra copies of the Journal, Constitution and Journal-Constitution to share near and far. Newspapers throughout the country used the AJC’s obits coverage as a model to develop their own distinctive obituary section.
There is no substitute for holding a friend’s or family member’s obit in print preserved for all time.
Tracey Alcala
2001-2024: Business service specialist.
I started working for the AJC distribution office in Douglasville in 2002, when there were two editions of the paper being delivered — The Atlanta Constitution in the morning and The Atlanta Journal in the afternoon. I always had a list of people waiting to get a carrier position to deliver the paper and become a part of the newspaper delivery team.
I have been a part of the printed paper for 23 years, and I have watched it go from two editions to one edition, from a wide paper to a narrower one, with font changes, price changes and circulation drops. It seems that the newer generation wants to read their news online, and thus the printed AJC newspaper will be ending.
It has been a great company to work for, and I’ve made some great friendships. I am glad to have been a part of this wonderful print world of the AJC.
Ben Gray
1998-2016, staff photographer and director of photography.
One of the great things about working at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when the office was on Marietta Street was that the production building (where the newspaper was printed) was attached to the newsroom.
Frequently I would cut through the production building to walk to or from assignments, and the smell of the ink and paper and the clanking of machinery still lingers in my mind when I remember those times.
I distinctly remember walking back from the Georgia Dome late one night after shooting a Falcons game. This was in the film photography days, so a runner had been shuttling my exposed film back to the photo editors at the office during the game and I hadn’t seen any of the images I had shot.
As I walked through the production building, I looked up at the stream of freshly printed papers that flew overhead on a conveyor system only to see one of my action photos on the front page of the late edition.
Jennifer Brett
1998—2025. Started as Fayette County school board reporter; ended as deputy managing editor.
A favorite print highlight was hawking papers in the parking lot of “223″ after the Braves’ 2021 World Series victory with colleagues, including Bill Torpy. Traffic was backed up for at least a mile. Braves fans had driven in from all over metro Atlanta and beyond.
I recall talking to someone who had come down from Ohio and bought a stack of papers. We worked in three-hour shifts, and business never slowed down the entire time I was out there. It was a joy to put the AJC’s work into the hands of so many readers.
Bill Hendrick
1979—2008: Copy editor, reporter, business editor.
I joined the Journal in ’79 and took a buyout Oct. 29, 2008.
I was a copy editor for three months (hated it and couldn’t write headlines worth a damn), assistant national editor for eight months, assistant business editor for about 10 years, including chief editor of Business Monday, and stock market columnist for several years.
I predicted the stock market crash of 1987 (if you don’t believe me, look it up. The paper ran a story.) I won a total of $3,500 in prize money.
The (paper) sent me all over the county and world, 44 states and the Netherlands, Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, Argentina, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico.
After retirement I freelanced for 15 years. I worked every desk except sports. One of my hardest jobs was covering drunken teenagers from Atlanta in Cancun for a week; sometimes they drank all night and I had a hell of a time keeping up with them.
I had a great career and loved 85% of it. I hate to see the print product go. I’ll still subscribe.
Wrote a book, “The Atlanta Daily Intelligencer Covers the Civil War,” and working on another. I don’t agree with the concept of segregating the news (Black culture, white culture, etc.) because I look at everyone the same.
Karen Rosen
1983-2008: Sports reporter.
I grew up in Auburn, Alabama, where we subscribed to The Atlanta Journal instead of any newspaper from my home state. I read Furman Bisher in sports and Brenda Starr in the funnies. The paper gave me my first job straight out of the University of North Carolina. It’s fitting that my first story was the 1983 Peachtree Road Race, where Grete Waitz fell at the start, was hauled to her feet and still won.
I covered nine Olympic Games and have since covered nine more, including Paris as an AJC freelancer. I went to every football stadium in what was then the SEC and ACC — and in the earlier days we brought our own plug-in telephones!
On one memorable day, I covered a noon game at Duke, afternoon game at N.C. State and night game at North Carolina.
“It’s the Mount Everest of football coverage,” I said in a story. “I’m doing it because they’re there.”
As a former “paper girl” who delivered The Auburn Bulletin, I’m sad the AJC will no longer be “there” as a physical product. I might even miss the newsprint on my hands and the issues carrying my byline blanketing the backseat of my car.
Bill King
1974-2017. Reporter, pop music critic, TV editor, copy editor, Journal copy chief, story editor and blogger.
Me and the print edition go back quite a way.
I had two adjoining neighborhood bicycle delivery routes for the afternoon Journal when I was in junior high in Athens. Since the Sunday paper was way too large to be delivered via bike, my dad would get up early with me and help me hand-insert all the preprinted sections and advertisements and then roll them and put rubber bands around them.
And then he’d slowly drive his station wagon through the neighborhood with me on the tailgate, tossing the papers. I still remember the smell of the ink on newsprint.
Then, of course, my first and only job out of UGA was with the AJC — first with the morning Constitution, then with the afternoon Journal for its last 10 years and then with the combined paper.
Among my many jobs through four-plus decades were DeKalb reporter, rock critic, copy desk chief of the Journal and, in later years, story editor and blogger. At one point during my copy desk years in Features, I handled the “bulldog” edition of the Sunday paper that went into stores Saturday afternoon.
Even after the paper went online, I always preferred the print experience and do so to this day. If you don’t need to wash your hands after reading the newspaper, then you haven’t really engaged with it! And after I retired but continued to do the occasional column for the Sunday AJC, I always went to the nearby Publix to pick up a couple of extra copies to clip for the family files.
Yes, the AJC will continue as a digital “brand” after the death of its print editions, but, I’m sorry, it won’t really be a “newspaper” without the latter half of that word being part of the experience.
Tracy Brown
2007-2018: Deputy managing editor.
When I was deputy managing editor, I would receive a call almost every week from an elderly subscriber about her Sunday paper not being delivered.
She enjoyed reading the paper but said she also really needed her coupons. I would forward her concerns, along with her address and phone number, to the circulation department. One week, in my own exasperation, I decided to deliver the paper to her myself.
So Monday afternoon, I headed to her home near Metropolitan Parkway. Atlanta traffic was not kind to me. It took me 2½ hours to deliver her paper from (the) Dunwoody office and return.
She, naturally, was extremely grateful. But that memory gives me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the AJC’s digital future. Wishing you all the best.
Brian O’Shea
1978-2024. Summer clerk, intern, reporter, editor, news tech manager, digital news pioneer.
The memories of contributing to the print editions are strongest on those days when extreme effort was needed, such as working overnight on election night or reporting during storms and still getting a paper out.
I was a copy carrier (newsroom errand person) in August 1978 when a construction crew for the MARTA rail line cut an electric cable for much of Five Points downtown, including the AJC building. Editors used flashlights, paper and pencil to plan a four-page section for the next day so the paper could publish on a borrowed printing press from the Decatur News Publishing Co. Columnist Celestine Sibley contributed her manual typewriter to the cause.
My big role that day was driving to UPI and AP bureaus to collect stacks of wire service news stories printed on paper for our editors to use in the special edition. The Constitution and Journal were separate in those days, but the four-pager contained the combined masthead for both papers.
Most of the day’s news was condensed to one-paragraph briefs, but there was a full front page, a full page of sports, the weather forecast and Lewis Grizzard’s column (written from Memphis, about Elvis). Even without electricity or a working printing press, the paper came out the next day.
Donna Roye
1986-2010: Circulation and advertising.
I still remember the call from the AJC in 1986 — the moment my dream came true.
As a high school student in Clayton County, I had imagined working where Margaret Mitchell once did. When the offer came, I walked on cloud nine, certain I was stepping into something special.
My fondest memory is of those quiet moments at 5 o’clock, leaving for the day with an evening edition in hand. My father, a devoted newspaper reader, would always ask, “Bring me one home,” and I always did.
After he passed, that ritual became a cherished link to both him and the work I loved.
Now, as the AJC’s print edition prepares to end, I feel both sadness and gratitude. The paper gave me a career, confidence and a sense of pride that no one can take away. Some dreams don’t come true — but this one did.
And even when the presses fall silent, I’ll still remember that feeling of pride — walking out at 5 o’clock, newspaper in hand, heart full.
David Gibson
1998-2018. Metro news editor.
There are no longer black blotches around every light switch in my home. I no longer have ink-stained fingers smudging the walls because of the two or three print newspapers I read (skimmed likely) every day, including the one I worked for at the time.
After 40-plus years as a daily newspaper reporter and editor, the last 20 at the AJC, I “retired” in 2018.
While there is a lot of satisfaction to be gained working for today’s “papers” and the service they provide, it’s not the same as seeing a story you wrote or edited on Page 1 and waiting anxiously for it to roll off the press.
But, as one Nobel laureate noted, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
For the great majority of my career, I was an ink-stained wretch with printer’s ink in my veins. I still do some contract editing for the AJC from my home in Virginia, but it’s not ink, but the Ethernet that is coursing through my blood.
It’s still good, but it’s not the same.
Eileen Drennen
1987-2009. Reporter and editor.
The beauty of working on a daily print edition was that every day we got another chance to do better — collaborating and brainstorming with photographers and graphic artists on what images might best tell a story. Producing so many weekly sections, from Weekend Preview and Sunday Arts to Food, Dixie Living and Home & Garden.
It was always a thrill to come upon our work out in the real world — tacked up on a bulletin board or office wall or even, decades after I edited it, to find a framed Dixie Living section front (story by Jim Auchmutey, illustrations by Walter Cumming) on a wall at the Loveless Cafe outside Nashville. Our work had reach.
I understand why moving to digital makes business sense, but grieve the end of the paper product anyway, which was such a pleasure to produce. I’ll always be grateful for my years of ink-stained fingers and the thunderous music of the giant presses that cranked out our pages to thousands of readers.
Kathy Warner
1985 - 2008: Advertising account executive.
I began my career at the AJC in 1985 as a part-time sales assistant and was promoted over time. I really loved working at the AJC.
I can remember sending copies of the employment classifieds home to friends that were considering relocating, as I had. It was two thick sections, as I recall, and I had to send it in a flat box because they were so heavy. Working on the fifth floor,
I had the chance to meet many amazing people who were interviewed, like Jesse Jackson, Tony Brown of Tony Brown’s Journal and President Jimmy Carter — not to mention the many co-workers and clients who I am still friends with. I also met my husband working downtown, and we opened up the Truth Bookstore, which was two doors down from our building.
My friends and family always teased me that I must have gotten ink in my blood. I can honestly say that I would have remained at the AJC long past my retirement age. It was kind of a second home.
The last print edition is truly the end of an era that I am proud to have been a part of.
Michelle Hiskey
1986—2008: Staff writer, sports reporter.
I knew my dad’s history from paging through thick scrapbooks of cut-and-pasted newspaper clippings.
His little hometown paper covered Hiskey golf victories like the dew. Being in the paper was a real big deal; so was reading it. At breakfast we fought over the sports section. Dad’s clippings inspired me to compete.
As a teenager, seeing my name in the tiniest (sports agate) type proved that I mattered too. So did getting my first byline in my county newspaper. People were touching and reading something by me! I began to see myself and my name with purpose, because what I wrote could be read, cut out and saved by someone else (or could provoke an angry phone call).
At the AJC, I worked with thousands of journalists, mostly face-to-face and side-by-side; we knew each other’s character and reputation, and the deadline stakes of accuracy and fairness. That realness resounded in the loud shaking and alarms of the pressroom I passed through going home.
As AJC presses shut down, consider that digital comes from the Latin digitus, the measure of a finger. Touching news on paper made it more real to me — made it, and us, matter — especially as the swiftest tsunami of technology in history barreled down.
William Leecan
1997 — 2013. Advertising creative graphic designer & creative media services manager.
The end of print is bittersweet. I’ve enjoyed the print process, but I’ve embraced and love everything digital.
Producing a printed product that was available in stores, schools, hotels and homes required a very large staff — a large community of co-workers who engaged with our readers throughout the years.
As an AJC In Action employee volunteer and chairman, I had the pleasure of educating the youth about our paper with our annual “Take Your Kids to Work Day,” and helping our community through Hosea Feed the Hungry, Habitat for Humanity, United Way and many more.
Doug Ross
2001—2014: Automotive classifieds. Major account sales.
My colleagues and I were proud to say that our advertising efforts supported the First Amendment “365” for the AJC and our audience. I often reflect and share the special fraternity within advertising and the production departments, which supported the needs of our clients.
I am proud to have worked during the heights of the AJC, which contributed toward the present and future of Cox Enterprises.
Renee DeGross
1999-2006: Business reporter.
We all got it done before online editions became the thing. When I first arrived at the AJC as a business reporter in 1999, I wrote not just for the morning Atlanta Constitution edition, but we had to rush copy into the afternoon Atlanta Journal during the week.
In reality, it was a stretch to make the afternoon edition with breaking news. News moved more slowly back then. On weekdays, they operated as two separate editions and, on weekends, as a combined paper. The afternoon edition closed down in 2001.
Fast-forward 24 years later, and the sad day has come. It’s the end of the print product itself.
Tom Oder
1973-2008. Journal copy editor, photo editor, news editor. Constitution news editor. Cox News Service managing editor.
I wrote the “It’s Atlanta!” headline when Atlanta won the Olympics in September 1990 and produced that day’s paper. I was the news editor on the Journal then — when we were two excellent and separate papers. I believe that was the bestselling paper in the history of either paper.
I have many stories from the days when we competed. I was also the editor the night Larry McDonald’s plane was shot down by the Russians — another story the Con missed. But two Journal editors — myself and the now-deceased Plott Brice — stopped work on the Journal to remake the Con’s street edition, which had McDonald’s plane safely on a tarmac in Russia.
I called the pressroom at 2:20 or so and asked if they had turned the presses on the Con street edition yet. I got the production foreman — who was over all mechanical operations. He said, “No.”
I said, “Don’t turn them. I am sending you a new front page.” He said, “That will make us late in turning the presses.”
Then he asked, “Do you know how much trouble you will be in if I don’t turn these presses on time?” “No, Ron,” I said, “I don’t.
“But I will promise you if you turn the street edition without the new front page you will be in far more trouble than you think I will be in.”
I.J. Rosenberg
1985—1999, sports reporter.
A few years ago, my mother lost her husband, who was a huge AJC print fan, and both my father and mother would read the paper each day from the first word to the last. My mother still does the same, and she said she will struggle without it.
The problem for her is she is not very good on the computer. We sat down on the computer, and she became very frustrated with it. She has a woman who stays with her in the day, and we are working on trying to print out the stories for her so she can read what she is interested in.
My mother is 84 and from a generation that received most of their news from the newspaper. I know she wishes that print was not going to go away, but she also understands times have changed. I do wish there was something in print we could do for that generation.
She has been reading the paper — the Constitution when she was younger, when there was a morning and evening paper (Journal) — for almost 70 years, starting out at her parents’ apartment on Boulevard in the 1950s.
Ralph Ellis
1990—2011. Reporter, news editor, bureau chief.
I spent many pre-Internet years working the night shift in Atlanta and other less glamorous locations, both as a reporter and a desk man.
I was part of a dedicated cadre that waited for a news clerk to bring up a stack of fresh papers from the pressroom. It felt good to hold the paper that, hours later, would be consumed by thousands of readers. This was one of the few rewards for missing your kid’s T-ball game.
But the arrival of a just-off-the-press paper created anxiety. There was always something to fix, even if it was just a misplaced comma. If a catastrophic mistake slipped through, you’d go crazy to fix it.
If you missed a big mistake that made it through every edition — like calling a Republican politician a Democrat — your annual review became as much fun as a visit to the proctologist.
When I was reporting and pounding out a story at 11 (o’clock) at night, I got to see my words on the page an hour later, sometimes less. Talk about immediate gratification!
In other parts of the writing world, this never happens. Digital journalists will never experience this kind of satisfaction. Or fear.
Reed Kimbrough
1989-2006: Director of workforce diversity and community relations.
I certainly feel a deep sense of sadness at the end of the print version of the AJC.
I began my career at “The Paper” as a part-time carrier, moved through circulation and production/operations and eventually joined administration.
I fondly remember the moment I stopped feeling like I simply “worked” for the AJC and instead felt the pride of being part of the AJC “family,” representing our dedicated team. We produced a tangible product every day, always on time!
Some of my memorable experiences include merging the Journal and Constitution editions, launching REACH (alternate delivery), the war with The New York Times, coordinating Hurricane Katrina relief and, most notably, witnessing Booker Izell’s outstanding efforts to create an inclusive workplace through the Managing Diversity program.
I miss all my former colleagues in the pressroom, transportation, newsroom, operations, advertising, marketing, IT and circulation. I’ll definitely miss holding the Sunday edition!
Nora Geer
1984-2008: Sales assistant
My favorite memories of print are doing all the puzzles in the Lifestyle section during lunch breaks!
My worst memories were when I had to lay out (with pencil and paper) the huge Leisure Guide with Richard Walker yelling at me over the phone to hurry up! I would go in at 4 a.m. and have to have it ready by 10 a.m. — many times working straight through with no break.
I already miss the print version, as I switched over to online last year — the subscription was too expensive for my retirement.
Leo Willingham
1993-2025. Sports editor.
As the AJC — and the newspaper business as a whole — shifted its focus to digital in the past 15—20 years, I would always stick to a catchy slogan when documenting special occasions: Digital is real time, print is lifetime.
Some of the top memories from my time at the AJC remain with me to this day thanks to framed front pages from the print edition:
- My first high school football preview section in 1995
- Atlanta Braves’ World Series front pages from 1996 and 2021
- Georgia college football championships in 2021 and 2022
The digital process connected with the Braves and UGA in 2021 and 2022 was detailed, quite rewarding from a professional perspective and generated money for the company through tribute books and digital display.
And although I take great pride in being a part of that process, my fondest takeaways come from viewing the framed print front page on the office wall. Goodbye, print edition, and all of the front-page memories you’ve created over the years.
Gracie Bonds Staples
2000-2020. Columnist.
In the summer of 2000, I walked into The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, heart racing, thrilled to touch the pages I had long admired.
It didn’t matter that the internet was already reshaping journalism, even causing layoffs nationwide. Print was alive. So, too, was the smell of ink, the rustle of fresh sheets, the hum of presses — and I was part of it.
Over the next 20 years, I dedicated myself fully to lifting the voices of Black, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities, and I was honored to share their stories with the world.
When I retired in 2021, I had already begun mourning the newspaper itself for reasons too complex to share here. Learning it would print its final edition brought a sadness I still cannot name — an ache I know for having been an early student of death and loss.
Print is tangible. The weight of pages, the ritual of turning each sheet and discovering the ink smudges on my fingers — screens cannot hold that soul.
The AJC was that soul, and its absence leaves a silence I will carry forever.
Cynthia Daniels-DuBose
2006-2015: Reporter and editor.
Although I spent the majority of my AJC career working for ajc.com, I always respected the power of print.
I had the privilege of working overnight on election night 2008. I watched then-Sen. Barack Obama walk onto the stage to declare victory, hurrying to find a photo to place onto ajc.com. What I remember most about that night was, in fact, the morning.
As I left 72 Marietta St., there was a line of people snaking down the sidewalk. They were from all ethnicities, walks of life and neighborhoods/suburbs. They were all there to grab their memory of this day in history. And their memory was the front page.
Marylin Johnson
1982 to 2007. Staff writer specializing in fashion and social events.
Newspapers have always been a part of my life.
I devoured the Sunday comics as a kid, wrote for my high school paper and later snagged a reporting job at the Chicago Tribune. When I moved to Atlanta, I first worked at Rich’s department store. But a features reporting job at The Atlanta Constitution opened in 1982 (soon to be The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and I was hooked.
Again. I could appreciate the rumble of the presses, the pressman’s paper hat, even the deadlines! I covered fashion and social events.
Along the way, I interviewed designers like Bill Blass and Ralph Lauren, wrote about up-and-coming Black designers Willi Smith and Atlantan Patrick Kelly, and attended runway shows and parties that raised money for charities. The Atlanta newspapers made it possible for me to travel the world and meet people in my chosen fields.
As the end of the AJC nears, I am sad. My morning fruit and yogurt won’t taste the same without me paging through the various sections.
But I’m reminded of the many friends I’ve made while working at the paper and some I still see today: Richard Eldredge, Morieka Johnson, Ann Noell, Don O’Briant.
It’s time to sign off, using the writer’s symbol I first used in the ’70s to signify the end of a story:
— 30 —
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
