The Dec. 31 print edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be the paper’s last, with the newspaper planning to move entirely online in 2026.
“This step reflects the outlet’s continued investment in its digital transformation and is intended to accelerate an ambitious, long-term growth strategy to transform the AJC from a storied daily newspaper into a modern media company,” the paper said in a post on its website.
The paper’s executives said that over the years, readers have moved away from print and towards digital platforms, ultimately leading to the decision to shutter the paper’s print operations.
“Many more people engage with our digital platforms and products today than with our print edition, and that shift is only accelerating. … holding onto the paper can bring a sense of comfort in a world of unrelenting change. But we cannot allow that to hold us back,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution President Andrew Morse, who is also the paper’s publisher, said in a letter to readers.
The Journal-Constitution once had as many as 630,000 print subscribers in 2004, falling to just 94,000 in 2020 and only 40,000 print subscribers currently according to The New York Times.
Cox Enterprises CEO Alex Taylor said in the paper’s post that “this change will allow us to reduce the use of trees, plastic, water and carbon, while at the same time increasing our focus on news gathering and public accountability.”
The Journal-Constitution’s readers will be able to get their articles on the paper’s website or on a planned AJC app launching later this fall. The paper’s digital strategy aims to reach 500,000 paid subscribers, according to a Journal-Constitution article on the planned shuttering of its print edition.
The Atlanta Constitution first published in 1868, and combined news operations with fellow Cox Enterprises-owned paper The Atlanta Journal in 1982, according to the New York Times, ultimately becoming one paper in 2001.