AJC Conversation

We’ve been making changes to the paper, and readers are noticing. Our subscriber base has grown each of the past five months.

Here’s one reader letter we received recently:

“I am so happy that we stuck with you! Your coverage is excellent.”

We know that you depend on us for tough investigative reporting and news that goes beyond the official story. And you’ve enjoyed the AJC Truth-o-Meter, where we put public officials’ statements to the test — seeing how truthful they are or whether their claims are “pants on fire.”

Now, we are adding more local content to make your time with us even better:

• Beginning Tuesday, we will add a two-page county-by-county report. You’ll find this new feature inside the Metro section every Monday-Saturday. It will keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in your community. We’ll add new features to help you navigate traffic, help fix your potholes and honor neighborhood heroes. Whether you live in Roswell, Lawrenceville, …

Continue reading Local coverage about to expand »

Do you have one? Are you thinking about getting one? Hoping someone gets one for you?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution would like to hear from you about the iPad and a host of other tablet computers expected to debut this year and next. I’m working with a AJC team on future digital platforms. We’re interested in knowing what you think. If you’re game to share your thoughts and participate in an exchange with me and the team, please follow this link.

Nunzio Michael Lupo, Senior Director/Digital Products

Continue reading Do you have an iPad or tablet computer? »

The recent controversy over cheating allegations and disputed student achievement claims at the Atlanta Public Schools has put the civic role of this newspaper front and center.

At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, we believe we have an important duty to inform you — the readers — about what is going on in the community. We tell the stories of what’s right, but we also tell you what’s wrong. We take an especially hard look at public officials and government. At stake are your tax dollars and government, and you need someone watching over them. That’s the role of the press in our democracy.

What we find isn’t always easy to tell or enjoyable to read. But we believe truth and facts will rule the day. That belief has guided our coverage of the Atlanta Public Schools.

Last week, former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, asking for federal intervention in the Atlanta Public School crisis. In that letter, she noted …

Continue reading We believe truth, facts will rule the day »

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This morning marks something of a fresh start for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The content for this newspaper and ajc.com was gathered in the usual manner, but it was edited and designed in a newly renovated office building just across the street from Perimeter Mall.

The move to the new office, first announced in August, has been months in the works. Most of the business staff moved in the past two weeks. The newsroom’s transfer was staged over the weekend to limit disruption to newsgathering. There was none.

The newspaper has enjoyed more than a century in downtown Atlanta, first as the separate Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, and since 2001 as a combined newspaper. And we will miss our downtown neighbors. But this move made sense for our company and for our readers.

A year ago, the newspaper was losing money. Business leaders moved quickly to turn that around, making a series of painful expense cuts that included …

Continue reading AJC’s newest chapter built on solid traditions »

In honor of Sunshine Week, I’m highlighting stories that could not have been published without government transparency laws.

Today’s stories revealed possible waste or excessive spending by local governments.

In August, reporter Tim Eberly revealed questionable land deals in Gwinnett County.

The headline: $37 million land deals questioned; Gwinnett Commission paid top dollar for park properties.

The top of the story:

Gwinnett County has paid politically connected developers inflated prices for parkland on at least four occasions in the last two years using questionable appraisals, including two supplied by developers, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of land purchases shows.

As a result, Gwinnett County taxpayers potentially paid millions more for land that has yet to be developed into parks they can use.

In arriving at its generous offers, the county often diverged from established procedures in buying parkland, saying it did not need to follow them because three of the …

Continue reading Sunshine Week: Today’s topic is government waste »

McIntosh, AJC Public Editor

The AJC routinely uses open government laws to obtain information about crime trends, law enforcement and crime response.

Among stories we’ve published that rely on public records was one by reporter Alan Judd, who detailed delays in Atlanta’s 911 center, resulting in excessive wait times for police officers to arrive at crimes, accidents and other calls. The story showed that, in nearly one-fifth of calls, it took dispatchers longer to send offiers on a call than the entire response time is supposed to take. He wrote that this was largely because of ineffective deployment of police officers.

After the story was published in November of 2009, APD promised improvement and the issue of police deployment came up often in the mayor’s race. We’ll be watching the new administration to see if improvements are forthcoming.

Another area where public records were crucial was in allowing examination of neighborhood-level crimes. Data specialist Matt Dempsey …

Continue reading Sunshine week: Today’s topic is public safety and crime reports »

McIntosh, AJC Public Editor

In honor of Sunshine Week, I wanted to highlight a couple of stories in which the AJC used public records to explore the possibility of  conflict of interest.

Cameron McWhirter and James Salzer reported on June 21, 2009, that Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s office has often hired lawyers who contributed to his campaign. These lawyers, “special assistant attorneys general,” handle legal work for the state government.

Baker, a Democratic candidate for governor, said the office cannot keep up with all the work without hiring private attorneys. He also said he does not accept contributions from lawyers who are currently working for the AG’s office, a policy intended to make clear that there is no link between donors and lawyers who get state business.

The eight lawyers who have earned the most as special assistants have received more than $22 million the past five years. Since 2001, those lawyers, their law firms, colleagues and immediate family …

Continue reading Sunshine Week: Today’s topic is conflict of interest »

McIntosh, AJC Public Editor

In honor of Sunshine Week, I am highlighting important stories from The AJC that could not have been written without government transparency laws.

Today’s entries will focus on stories that revealed possible cheating on CRCT tests. The stories began with an investigative report, published in December of 2008, that  revealed startling gains in test scores at five schools.  Another story,  published in October of 2009, showed similarly surprising gains or drops at 19 additional schools.

Reporter Heather Vogell and data analyst John Perry analyzed CRCT scores to find the disparities. They used standard statistical tests to determine the likelihood of schools seeing such dramatic gains in test scores.  In some cases, they found gains or drops that were so unlikely the statistical odds against them were a billion to one.

Many officials originally dismissed concerns about possible cheating. Gov. Perdue, however, did not.  The Governor’s Office of …

Continue reading Sunshine Week: Today’s topic is the cheating scandal »

McIntosh, AJC Public Editor

This week I judged a journalism contest, assessing the efforts of Indiana newspapers to serve their communities.

One reporter took to a wheelchair and navigated dozens of Northwest Indiana buildings to determine whether the Americans with Disabilities Act was being properly enforced.

Another reporter registered the late Johnny Appleseed as the new owner of Fort Wayne’s 22-story Lincoln Tower to prove how easy it is for those engaged in mortgage fraud to elude detection.

A third reporter continued to work on a series of articles about the state’s child protective services for months after she left the newspaper for a university job.

It would be an understatement to say I was impressed with their ingenuity and diligence.

Judging the contest, sponsored by Indiana’s Associated Press, I was also struck by a unifying thread of the public service entries. No matter how ingenious, diligent or dedicated, none of those reporters could have done their job …

Continue reading Sunshine Week: Time to commemorate access, accountability »

Recently, many newspapers were apparently duped by a Barack Obama fan who submitted a fake “letter to the editor” to numerous publications. Voters, the letter said, were expecting too much of the new president too soon.

It wasn’t that the letter writer sent the letter to multiple newspapers that caused consternation. It was that the writer, in many cases, named a different hometown, near each paper, to improve the letter’s chances of being published. Sent under the name of Ellie Light or variations of that name, the letter purported to come from Huntsville when sent to The Huntsville (Ala.) Times and from Winder when sent to the Barrow County News.

We did not receive a letter from Light, and we’re not positive what would have happened if we had. We do verify letters to the editor, but so do many of the papers that published the letter, and several were given false information during verification.

The letter has been printed in at least 40 newspapers. The Plain …

Continue reading Letters to the editor and verification »