As a loyal reader of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, you may be aware of the many changes we made in 2011 — including my arrival in January as the editor of the newspaper. I hope you like the changes, even if you’re not sure yet about the new guy.
I’ve spent some time reflecting on this year as I’ve been warmly welcomed by our readers and community. It’s been a big news year in a fascinating and vibrant place to live.
As the incoming editor, I had the advantage of inheriting a talented and committed staff. Each day, the folks around here work hard to do their job for our readers.
So I thought it’d be worth talking a little about our commitment to you.
Shortly after I arrived in January the big ice storm hit. Our newsroom — and the entire Atlanta Journal-Constitution organization — impressed me with its efforts to cover the story and get out the newspaper.
But the ice hadn’t even melted before our reporters got on to holding state and local officials accountable for their response to the storm, which shut down the area. It was a good introduction for me; whether it was that coverage or our deep reporting on the cheating scandal at Atlanta Public Schools or explaining the challenges of being part of the Alzheimer’s Generation or analyzing the projects list for the T-SPLOST , the staff went after stories with inspiring vigor.
And besides our local reporting, we also worked to bring you the important stories from the nation and world, from the deaths of Osama bin Laden and Moammar Gadhafi to the European debt crisis to ongoing ideological battles in Washington.
For years, our editors and reporters have been working to get to the bottom of this cheating scandal in metro schools, a story that centered on Atlanta Public Schools. After all, we were the ones who discovered it, and we wanted to be able to explain to you why it happened. This year, we did. Our deep look at the scandal showed some administrators and principals intimidated teachers into cheating and created a culture that encouraged it. Then those same people had the audacity to try and thwart the state’s investigation.
But perhaps the most gratifying aspect of the story for us has been chronicling the efforts of the system, led by a new superintendent, to recover from the devastation of the scandal. It is good to see folks acknowledge and begin to address problems.
In another big ongoing story, our reporters and editors dove deeply into the key economic issues confronting metro Atlanta, which has taken an unfamiliar beating during the Great Recession.
Recognizing our region’s challenges, we committed some of our best staffers to our signature Atlanta Forward project, focusing on three key issues — transportation, education and water — as we looked deeply at the future of Atlanta’s economy.
One of the key factors that will shape Atlanta’s future is your upcoming vote on the 1 percent sales tax to fund $6 billion in transportation projects.
We’ve written exhaustively through the deliberations over the program, and we’ve insisted on being first to report each version of the project list. We assessed the issues in all 10 metro counties that will vote on the referendum. And in the fall, we commissioned a poll that showed the initiative’s razor-thin support.
Speaking of transportation, the HOT lanes became quite a story. We took you behind the headlines of the state’s new pay lanes on I-85 in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties — and we predicted that the congestion would get worse. When it debuted this fall, commuters discovered the same thing and pushed the state to reconsider the effectiveness of building more HOT lanes. Just a few weeks ago, the state dropped its $1 billion plan to build HOT lanes in the highly congested I-75-575 corridor.
You expect us to be a watchdog on government — so we also kept on eye on Georgia’s politicians. We revealed that in the first two weeks of last year’s legislative session, lobbyists spent about $80,000 wining and dining lawmakers. They spent another $100,000 entertaining lawmakers during the brief special session last summer.
On education, we focused on teacher quality — an issue gaining importance. We sent a reporter to Houston to dig into groundbreaking work there and what it could mean for Georgia. We also spent weeks studying what Georgia has done over the years to improve the quality of its teachers only to find that while we’ve spent billions, we don’t know if it’s working. And we found that even when administrators identify bad teachers, they’re nearly impossible to fire.
Working for readers in 2011, we also:
• Investigated the state’s oversight of daycare centers and found that eight children died and 239 were injured at daycare centers over the past five years despite clear warning signals to state inspectors.
• Pored over thousands of documents and found that county jails have become the new asylums for the mentally ill — an expensive and ineffective approach.
• Dug deeply into the collapse of a major and potentially historic plan to overhaul Georgia’s tax system, showing how it would impact you.
• Documented how spending on the state’s universities rose continually even as the financially stressed state cut spending on many other essential services.
• Provided unmatched coverage and analysis of Georgia’s new law intended to convince illegal immigrants to avoid the state. We also played close attention to the fallout, sending a reporter to Arizona to report on that state’s experience.
• Analyzed government pensions that are as much as $2.8 billion in the hole — a deficit that could ultimately put a drain on your wallet.
• Continued paying close attention to Gwinnett County land deals, particularly those in which developers received fat paychecks from the county’s school system under questionable circumstances. After earlier uncovering apparently improper land deals involving Gwinnett County officials — revelations that led to indictments — our reporting prompted the county this fall to adopt stricter ethics rules.
• Brought you the human stories of a family that was nearly wiped out and a school that was destroyed when a deadly onslaught of tornados cut two wide swaths of destruction through Georgia.
• Hit the campaign trail when it became clear that two presidential candidates with Georgia ties were becoming serious contenders, bringing you insightful stories about their record and histories in Georgia.
• Provided an unmatched level of depth and knowledge when the controversial execution of Troy Davis briefly took the world stage. We were the only newspaper with a reporter in the room to capture his final moments.
You can expect similar inspired efforts from us this year, which promises to be full of news. We have a presidential election before us, and Georgia and the nation will continue to try to put the difficult economy behind us.
Thanks for reading and subscribing, and best wishes for a great 2012.
Join me on Facebook to get an insider’s view; visit
About the Author
