After more than a decade in the northern suburbs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is returning its main office to the city.
The news outlet signed a lease at Promenade Central along Peachtree Street near the Woodruff Arts Center, renting about 21,000 square feet for a newsroom and studio. It’s a pivotal move for Georgia’s newspaper of record, which left its longtime downtown offices nearly 14 years ago, first for a location in Dunwoody and later Sandy Springs.
By moving to Midtown, Publisher and President Andrew Morse said the AJC is planting its flag at the center of the community it covers.
“We are The ATLANTA Journal-Constitution,” he said with emphasis. “It’s really important to be at the beating heart of the city.”
The AJC and its predecessors — the Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Journal — operated bustling newsrooms in downtown Atlanta for 140 years. The AJC moved from its location at 72 Marietta Street after the Great Recession, opting to relocate near the campus of its parent company Cox Enterprises in the Central Perimeter area. The Marietta Street building was donated to the city in 2010.
Morse, a former CNN executive who joined the AJC in early 2023, said returning the AJC’s operations and news staff to Atlanta is intended to reconnect to the city’s readership amid a new wave of editorial and newsroom investment.
“Our home is a reflection of who we are. This location really embodies the spirit of what the new AJC is,” Morse said. “We have an ambition to reintroduce the brand, to transform ourselves into a modern media company and to reconnect, frankly, to segments of our audience that we haven’t been as close to in recent years.”
Morse has laid out substantial goals for the AJC to grow its paid digital subscriber base to 500,000 by the end of 2026. That effort involves hiring about 100 people in the coming years, placing editorial staff in cities around Georgia and launching new products dedicated to sports, Black culture, food and politics, as well as investments in both audio and video programming.
On a November tour of the Promenade Central office space, Morse marveled at future newsroom space that fronts Peachtree Street. He envisioned a prominent “AJC” sign that would be visible from Peachtree Street.
Built in 1989 for AT&T, Promenade Central at 1200 Peachtree Street also served as the Atlanta regional offices of Norfolk Southern before the railroad company relocated near Georgia Tech’s Technology Square.
Other Promenade Central tenants include Visa, architecture firm TVS and consulting firm Kimley-Horn. Atlanta-based Cousins Properties owns and manages the building and has significantly renovated the premises in recent years.
Credit: Google Maps
Credit: Google Maps
TVS will design the AJC’s interior spaces, including a custom studio space to anchor a growing portfolio of video offerings. The AJC premiered its first feature-length documentary, “The South Got Something to Say,” in November and this year launched “The Monica Pearson Show” with the veteran Atlanta broadcaster.
The AJC is expected to occupy the space by the end of the year. Lease terms were not disclosed. Brokers Eric Ross and Rusty Kigelman of real estate services firm CBRE represented the AJC in lease negotiations.
The lease signing comes during a turbulent time for the office market as companies continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on workplace culture and the rise of remote work. Nearly a third of all office square footage in metro Atlanta was available for rent at the end of December, a record for the region.
But Morse said the AJC needed to move back within the city as soon as possible, especially since all eyes will be on Georgia in 2024 during the presidential election. He added that the relocation is a key part of the AJC’s growth plan and digital transformation.
“For us, this isn’t just about changing our address,” Morse said. “It is about fundamentally transforming what the AJC is.”
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