We Were Print » Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cox Announces New Publisher in Atlanta

4thestate — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:22:44 +0000

ATLANTA (July 23, 2009) – Cox Media Group announced today that Michael Joseph is being promoted to publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), effective immediately. Joseph currently serves as the AJC’s general manager and president. He will continue reporting to Doug Franklin who will continue his role at Cox Media Group as executive vice president.

“Mike is a natural choice for this role,” said Franklin. “First in Dayton, and most recently in Atlanta, Mike has exhibited a wealth of operations and management experience. These skills will be invaluable as the AJC adjusts its business model to best serve readers and advertisers.” Joseph joined the AJC in April 2009 to oversee all of the company’s business operations, including advertising, marketing, circulation, production and human resources. Prior to joining the AJC, Joseph served as president and CEO of Cox Ohio and publisher of the Dayton Daily News.

He joined Cox Ohio Publishing in 1995 and served a number of roles. While in Dayton, he was responsible for multiple business operations, including advertising sales, distribution, manufacturing, finance, information systems and human resources. He also oversaw the planning, design and operations of Cox Ohio’s Print Technology Center, which produces the company’s four daily and eight weekly newspapers, as well as the regional edition of The New York Times. Prior to joining Cox, he worked for Pioneer Press Newspapers in Illinois.

Shocking: Judge Parker is Back, AJC has a Comics Editor

Matt — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:22:20 +0000

In reading a Washington Post commentary, Are Too Many Newspaper Comic Polls a Sham?, I was shocked by two points:

Judge Parker is being returned to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The AJC has a Comics Editor.

Judge Parker? Really? You’re not exactly picking up new readers with that stinker.

With the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cutting more than 50 full-time employees, 100 part-time employees and dropping 22 counties from its circulation, does it really need a Comics Editor?

What wasn’t shocking: comics polls don’t mean much. One of the first newspaper jobs I ever had was collecting ballots, inputting data and tabulating the results of my paper’s comics survey. The people who take the time to fill out a 50-plus question survey aren’t necessarily a representative sample.

Also, they have poor handwriting and can’t cut a straight line to save their life.

Atlanta’s (AJC) Buyouts-Layoffs

4thestate — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:57:52 +0000

The buyout at the AJC is offered to 290 full-time employees (of 408) in the newsroom. They want to bring the 408 down to 350. The deal is available to almost everyone who has 5 years with Cox (including service at other newspapers); they rounded some people up with 4+ years to make them eligible too. A few senior manager types and a few key people in our Digital department (which is what we call the website) are exempt and may not take the buyout. Those who do will receive 2 weeks pay and benefits for every year, up to a maximum of 52 weeks. The company stops your Flex credit and 401K match on your last day of work, so the health benefits will cost you more.

If they do not get 58 takers (56 now because there’s been a resignation and a firing), they will lay people off to get to that number. Layoffs get 1 week of pay and benefits per year of service, with a minimum of 4 weeks and max of 26.

If they get more than 58 applications, they will decide which ones to accept to keep a balance of job skills within the newsroom. If there are more applicants than they need in any one job title (copy editor, reporter, designer, whatever), they will decline the applicants with the least seniority. Those people would be exempt from this round of layoffs, but not necessarily in any future round of layoffs.

We have til July 31 to decide whether to apply. They will notify us the following week and last day of work is Aug. 30.

Laid-off employees, if layoffs are necessary, would be notified the week of Aug. 11. I think they would leave right away but would be paid through Aug. 30, when severance pay would kick in.

There is a reorganization of sorts which they insist is not a reorg. We separated our two content departments a year ago into Enterprise (primarily concerned with print) and News & Information (primarily concerned with breaking news on the website). They will be combined again into one department, but the details are hazy. A new organizational chart will be released after Aug. 11, and employees whose jobs have been eliminated in the reorg will be asked to reapply for another job. This is the third time in 7 years we have had to reapply for our jobs. It gets old.

They have also eliminated all the zoned editions and a few features sections like Better Health. The content will be squeezed into other sections. The Print Department (primarily designers, copy editors and section editors) will probably have the most positions eliminated because there will be less work.

No idea how many people will take it. Some people think they won’t get 58. Others think many more. There are rumored to be about 31 takers so far.

It is commonly believed that the next round of staff reduction will be layoffs only, so a lot of people are factoring that in. We had 43 buyouts last summer out of a pool of about 80 who were eligible.

There is a separate buyout of advertising people (the Revenue Dept) of a little more than 100 people. I don’t know much about that.