The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be terminating its physical newspaper, becoming fully digital starting Jan 1. This announcement follows over 150 years of the AJC printing a physical paper.
“I’m on the website multiple times a day, especially if there’s local news or things like that,” Art Lieb, a seven-year AJC subscriber said. “I mean, it’s important because I follow a lot of local news and politics.”
Lieb said he only uses his subscription to take advantage of the online paper. He believes most subscribers prioritize the digital version, even though they still receive the physical newspaper.
“I think it’s past time for physical papers to be discontinued, as most people use the digital version,” Lieb said. “I also think environmentally, it’s more beneficial that the AJC is not cutting down more logs to send papers out.”
Lieb emphasized that while younger generations mostly read online, older generations mainly rely on physical newspapers.
“The only people that really are going to be affected by this are the people that are my parents’ age that are older and are not as comfortable reading online,” Lieb said. What age group or how old is Lieb?
Mark Davis, a former AJC reporter, who spent for 15 years there, said it was financially beneficial for the AJC to get rid of the print papers considering today’s economy.
“It’s an economic reality, and I don’t want the AJC to continue throwing money if it’s going to hurt the future prospects of their publication,” Davis said. “At a certain point, the AJC is basically throwing money away by wasting it on home deliveries.”
