Atlanta JC to cut 189 jobs, junk insert sections

As reported on Atlanta.com:..

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will cut its workforce by 8 percent, or about 189 jobs, and eliminate all of its geographically targeted news sections as part of a cost-cutting plan announced Wednesday.

The moves come amid an advertising revenue slump that has ravaged the newspaper industry and has been made worse by rising costs for fuel and newsprint, executives said.

The daily Gwinnett News section, as well as the weekly NorthSide, CityLife and NorthWest sections — all inserts in the main Journal-Constitution — will disappear starting in August, the company said.

Publisher John Mellott said the AJC will maintain news bureaus in Gwinnett, Cobb, DeKalb and North Fulton, adding that the daily newspaper's metro and sports sections will expand to handle coverage from those areas.

He said cost of producing the separate community sections has become "prohibitive," citing a 35 percent jump in newsprint costs over the past year. The AJC last year eliminated similar sections for news in south metro Atlanta counties, and it also has cut the daily paper's circulation area.

Mellott said the latest moves also include elimination of the standalone Better Health and Buyer's Edge sections, now produced once a week, with their content rolled into expanded Living sections on Wednesdays and Sundays, beginning in August.

Job cuts, which will occur between August and October, will mainly affect the news and advertising departments at the company, Mellott said.

They will be accomplished through voluntary buyouts, layoffs and job eliminations.

The AJC also has cut jobs in other departments. The company currently has about 2,300 full-time employees.

Despite the latest cuts, Mellott said the company's "transformation to a multi-media company is working."

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