Jim Minter, former executive editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, dies at 95
On a Saturday in the mid-1970s, Jim Minter was called to 72 Marietta St. in downtown Atlanta, where he was the editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. There, he learned, Jimmy Carter wanted to meet with the newspaper’s bosses. He was going to run for president, Carter told them, and he wanted the AJC to assign a reporter to his campaign.
Minter was all for it, his son Rick Minter said. “He said he saw this fire in Carter’s eyes, and he thought he would be elected president.” The others at the meeting disagreed.
But when Carter’s campaign stopped in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Minter sent a reporter to cover him. A few weeks later, as Carter’s profile rose, Minter dispatched another reporter to Jacksonville, Florida, where Carter was speaking. By then, the campaign was going full steam and an AJC reporter began traveling with the future president.
“That’s the way Jim was,” said Dink NeSmith, co-owner of Community Newspapers. He and Minter were friends for more than 40 years. “He could see things other people couldn’t. He was wise. I’d say he was my Yoda.”
James G. Minter Jr. died May 27 at his home in Inman, a small community in Fayette County where he grew up. He was 95.
The only child of Sarah Harp Minter and James G. Minter Sr., he left the family farm to attend North Georgia College in Dahlonega for a little more than two years. He then transferred to the University of Georgia, where he earned a journalism degree in 1951.
After college, he went to work at The Atlanta Journal, left the newspaper to serve as an infantry training officer during the Korean War and then returned to the Journal and joined the sports department, becoming executive editor.
In the 1960s, that department was one of the best in the country, “and it delivered half a million papers during college football season,” said Atlanta native Doug Monroe, who later worked at the AJC. “You could spend your entire Sunday reading the AJC.”
As the managing editor of The Atlanta Constitution, Minter was obsessed with “getting it right and getting it fast,” with a sportswriter’s mentality, his son said. He was dedicated to putting out a good product people wanted to read. Many of his former employees describe him as “fair but scary,” capable of a silent stare that could melt ice. He didn’t tolerate any silliness.
When Elvis Presley died in 1977, Minter said his death was a huge event and others were underestimating its effect on readers.
As the paper’s managing editor, he directed the purchase of a book — “not a very well written book,” his son said — about Elvis, and then ran installments in the Constitution for days.
Because of those stories, the circulation of the morning Constitution exceeded that of the afternoon Journal for the first time.
The two newspaper staffs merged in 1983, and Minter became the editor. He had a long working relationship and friendship with columnist Lewis Grizzard, who began his AJC career as an editor and writer in the Journal’s sports department.
Grizzard moved from the sports department to the metro desk, writing a syndicated humor column. Minter initially hired Grizzard because UGA football coach Vince Dooley recommended him. The two stayed in touch until Grizzard’s death in 1994.
Frederick Allen, who spent 15 years as a political columnist at the AJC, said that no matter what he wrote, “I never got any negative feedback from management. I think that was because Jim protected and defended me. He felt columnists should be able to say what they wanted.”
Minter is also remembered for being the “bag man” who in February 1974 drove an open-air jeep 10 miles on newly opened Ga. 400 — in a T-shirt — to deliver a $700,000 ransom to the criminal who had kidnapped Constitution editor Reg Murphy. The FBI caught the kidnapper, and the money was returned.
In December 1986, AJC publisher Jay Smith replaced Minter with New York Times veteran Bill Kovach as editor of the AJC. Minter would become senior editor and a vice president of Cox’s newspaper division.
In May 1988, Minter left the AJC. A few months later, he formed Southern Publishing Inc., which purchased the Clayton News/Daily and the Henry Herald.
“He wanted to do journalism on a smaller scale,” Rick Minter says. A few years later, Jim Minter wrote a regular column for the Fayette and Coweta Extras, weekly sections of the AJC.
“He knew his audience,” his son said. “He knew what they wanted to read.”
In addition to his son, Jim Minter is survived by his wife, Ann Taylor Minter; another son, Rob; two granddaughters; two great-granddaughters; and two great-grandsons.
He was buried in the Inman Cemetery after a graveside service May 30. Those who wish to may donate to the Inman Cemetery Association fund, 144 Hill’s Bridge Road, Fayetteville, GA 30215.
