My last AJC for a while?

Whenever I go back and forth home to Virginia, I almost always stop to pick a few newspapers along the way. Rarely do I not get an Atlanta Journal-Constitution either coming or going.

One advantage of teaching in Anniston is that I can pick up a copy of the AJC in Anniston every day of the week. But, it looks like that's about the change.

My latest AJC came last weekend when I was in Kennesaw for SoCon07.

Thanks to my colleague Len Witt, who mentioned this on his PJNet blog, I learned that the AJC is about to go through a reorganization that will eliminate circulation to outlining areas like Anniston, which is about an hour west of Georgia's capital city.

Though I constantly get links to stories on the ajc.com website, I have refused to register to read the content because I just don't want the hassle of logging in every time I need to read an article.

Am I old school because I don't want to read a newspaper on the Internet? I just would prefer to read the printed edition when I can get it and appreciate the layout and design that I most admire about the AJC.

Oh yeh-- about the reorganization, Leonard seems to like the effort of what the AJC is calling an "enterprise department" that will focus on "unrelenting watchdog coverage, deep reporting, great storytelling, interesting profiles and trend stories."

Witt calls it "smartening up"

As a former broadcaster in the Atlanta market who relied on the AJC for content for my news program, I've got to wonder what this means for those producing electronic media in North Georgia everyday. It's always harder to rewrite those longer trend stories and deep reporting projects into 15 or 20-second stories (smile).

Seriously though, it does seem like the AJC has decided to be more strategic with its print and its Web product, which I might have to breakdown, log on and consume, especially since I won't be able to buy the print edition in Alabama.

We'll see.