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Friday, September 15, 2023

Cox Enterprises To Push For Digital Subs


The new leader of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wants to increase the publication’s digital subscribers more than eightfold by the end of 2026, an ambitious goal he aims to reach through expanded local-news coverage and new products, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“In the last five-to-10 years, we’ve just focused on Atlanta,” said Andrew Morse, a former CNN digital executive who took over as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s new president and publisher in January. He said the publication plans to hire about 100 people in the coming years and place editorial staff in Georgia cities such as Macon, Savannah, Columbus, Augusta and Athens, where it determined that local coverage has eroded. 

The publication is also planning to add products dedicated to sports, Black culture, Southern cooking and politics, including new video and audio features—most of which would be available exclusively to subscribers. 


Morse said the moves are part of an effort to reach 500,000 digital subscribers largely across the Southeast by the end of 2026, up from about 60,000 today. The expansion will be funded in part by the $100 million that Atlanta Journal-Constitution parent Cox Enterprises recently allocated to the publication, a person familiar with the funding said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is facing declining circulation and remains unprofitable, the person familiar with the matter said. On weekdays, its total circulation ranges between 80,000 and 100,000, according to data from the Alliance for Audited Media. 

Morse said he plans to continue to offer the daily print newspaper and expand the Sunday edition, even as it gives priority to digital. “The print paper has become a secondary consideration,” he said. 

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