There's so much news every week, it's easy to miss all that happens. For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I have to think a little more will slip through its fingers, now that the paper has moved its headquarters from downtown Atlanta to Dunwoody, Ga., an exburb. Clustering shouldn't be overlooked as a business asset, even in the 21st century, and especially not in the newspaper business, when being close to the courthouse, statehouse, city hall, shopping district, financial district, etc, is always important: It's often the difference between walking to one of these locations, when people get to know your face, prompting them to feed you news tidbits, and making a phone call. Getting out of the office improves reporting exponentially.
The Journal-Constitution's move is emblematic of the present-day newspaper industry. The newsroom's staff has shrunk by 50 percent, circulation declined by 20 percent in the first six months of 2009, and only 20 counties receive delivery now, compared to 145 at the peak, the Times reports. Rent in Dunwoody has to be cheaper than that in Atlanta by several orders of magnitude.
More profoundly, the move is emblematic of the past 50 years of American urbanism. The Journal-Constitution has traded urban core for suburban periphery, office building for former Macy's distribution center, downtown for office park, walking for driving, sidewalk for parking lot, and so on. Its readership long ago decamped for the suburbs, so, yes, it's a smart business move for the paper to do the same. Yet that also means it has traded urban policy and politics for suburban minutiae. One is of small-scale and generic reach; the other is of profound and diverse impact. A big-city daily paper can't be described as such, in terms of its geography and influence, when it's no longer in a big city.
No comments:
Post a Comment