Atlanta becomes largest U.S. metro without a printed daily newspaper as Journal-Constitution goes digital

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will stop providing a print edition at year’s end and go completely digital, a dramatic change for a storied newspaper founded shortly after the Civil War.

The decision will make Atlanta the largest U.S. metro area without a printed daily newspaper, although some smaller metro Atlanta newspapers continue printing.

Publisher Andrew Morse said in his Thursday announcement that the news organization will aim to expand its audience as it continues to report the news using online, audio and video products.

“The fact is, many more people engage with our digital platforms and products today than with our print edition, and that shift is only accelerating,” Morse wrote in a letter to subscribers posted on the Journal-Constitution’s website. The AJC has about 115,000 total subscribers, of whom 75,000 are online only; Morse has set a goal of gaining 500,000 online subscribers.

The newspaper is privately owned

Morse said The Journal-Constitution will offer a new mobile app

Many smaller newspapers have stopped printing, while others have cut back their days of publication. For example, The Tampa Bay Times in Florida prints only two days a week. But it’s been unusual for major metropolitan dailies to entirely abandon print. The highest profile example is The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey. Once the state’s top-selling newspaper, it stopped printing in February. It’s owned

The Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University counted 1,033 daily newspapers in 2024, down from 1,472 in 2005, and 650 digital-only news sites.

Some still see profits to be made with print. Decaturish, which covers the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, started as an online-only publication but launched a weekly print edition after it was bought last year

“They’re going to spend that money on print and they might as well spend it with us,” Whisenhunt said, saying that the end of a printed newspaper could create new opportunities for others. “Sustainability in journalism requires multiple revenue streams,” he said.

The Cox family has invested in The Journal-Constitution since Morse, a former CNN executive, became publisher in 2023. The Journal-Constitution has hired

Company executives said the print edition was still profitable, after they out

“We will begin the new year as a fully digital organization, committed, as always, to being the most essential and engaging news