Comments on: Welcome to ajcSunday

By: Norman Hulme

Norman Hulme — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:41:09 +0000

First off, I do like the overall redesign of the paper. As a long-time daily subscriber (16+ years), you’ve done a great job in a difficult time for all news organizations.

My only complaint is the new masthead for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. If I bring the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, (and many other great newspapers) to mind… it’s that they all have a strong visual identity. The NY Times uses it’s famed masthead as a graphical icon for delivery trucks, paper boxes, online, direct-mail, and a wide variety of other applications. These mastheads all date back to the individual paper’s origins. Certainly over time they’ve been modified, tweaked and streamlined… but they still serve as the historical visual anchor for the publications.

I’m sad to say that the redesigned masthead looks like USA Today-Lite. I could remove “Atlanta”, and replace it with “Anchorage” or “Albuquerque” without much problem. When I first moved to Atlanta from New York, you had both a strong masthead along with the quote “Covers Dixie Like The Dew”. I thought this was perfect!

As a new resident of the Capital of the South, I wanted a paper that was the obvious voice of my neighborhood, my community and the region. You continue to do that very well… it’s just that I believe you’ve lost any visual connection to your long history. A loss indeed.

By: roy smith

roy smith — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:34:11 +0000

i take it partially back, pearls before wine was excellent today as usual (read it and take heed).

By: roy smith

roy smith — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:31:48 +0000

Today’s Sunday paper was depressing. A poor imitation of USA Today, or perhaps a neighborhood amateur paper. You guys are surely joking. It is sad to read your artificially upbeat comments about the current state, i.e. demise, of a once proud paper. I doubt if this poor excuse for a paper will be around even another year. Sorry, but its true. People who know how to read will be leaving in droves. Colorizing a bad product does not change the content.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:16:41 +0000

It would seem what you are telling us is that we will get a paper whose quality we have come to expect, but only once a week. Take the rest of it because we tell you we talked to a really big bunch of people and they liked it so you should too. The fonts and readability seems to be better than Tuesday (could hardly be worse, but it at least keeps us thinking you are listening). However the content and quality of writers your readers are so ardently calling for seems to be an unreal expectation, and you guys can’t seem to quite figure out how to tell us that. Maybe you should go to a Sunday only paper, and put out a product we can all be proud of.

By: Charles Gay, Sunday Editor

Charles Gay, Sunday Editor — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:07:24 +0000

Folks, it’s after 5 p.m. and I’m signing off for the day. This blog should be active for a while longer so I’ll check for additional comments late tonight or in the morning. Thanks for the constructive criticism, which we do take seriously and helps us make adjustments. If you have a concern, an idea, a question, or anything else to say about the Sunday AJC you’re welcome to email me at cgay@ajc.com.

By: Charles Gay, Sunday Editor

Charles Gay, Sunday Editor — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:15:37 +0000

Back again.
Trent, thanks for the positive feedback. We felt Gimme Five had run its course after a couple of years and ended it a while back. Maybe it was because we were running it every day. If other readers like it too, there’s nothing to say we couldn’t just do it on Sundays.
Jon, Mark Davis is indeed a great writer and I’m happy to say he’s on our Sunday staff. It’s worth pointing out that we’ve created a staff of 32 reporters, editors and photographers who work exclusively on the Sunday paper to ensure that it’s strong every week. Other reporters from the rest of the AJC newsroom also contribute stories from their beats, but in past years the Sunday paper was an afterthought for many – even most – busy staffers. Our Sunday group works all week, and in some cases for several weeks, on stories we know will land in the Sunday paper and we think it makes the Sunday AJC a smarter, more comprehensive, and better thought-out read. You’ll of course be the ultimate judge.
That’s a long way of saying yes, you’ll be seeing Mark’s byline on most Sundays.

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:32:23 +0000

Sunday paper looks good. It appeared to have more, longer stories than previously, especially in metro. I hope Mark Davis is a Sunday keeper — he’s a good writer, and has been in the paper too seldom.

Confused by the picture of food on the left-hand page between two stories. Didn’t make sense.

Enjoyed the article on Korean entrepreneurship in Gwinnett. I can’t find it on AJC.COM, though.

By: Trent

Trent — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:00:30 +0000

All in all, Mr. Gay, I think Sunday is better. Question, though: What happened to Gimme Five, which used to be in sports? I used to like the daily lists. I even had a suggestion make it into print as an idea. Why not revive it?

By: Charles Gay, Sunday Editor

Charles Gay, Sunday Editor — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:55:46 +0000

Sue, I’m sorry to hear you’re dropping us. I’ll just tell you and everybody else that we’re aware that typos have been a problem lately. I think a lot of it is attributable to the change in fonts and other operating system issues, but that’s no excuse. We brought in additional proofreaders last week and they caught a lot of errors but evidently not everything. We will work harder at it.
Gang, I have grass that needs cutting (all this rain!) so I’m going to attend to that and come back later in the afternoon. Keep posting comments; I’m reading every one and other editors are too.

By: Sue12345

Sue12345 — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:48:43 +0000

I have been an AJC subscriber for 10 years. My subscription is about to run out and the AJC has been calling me twice a day for the past two weeks to urge me to subscribe again (when I see the caller id says AJC, I don’t pick up). I have been horrified by the typos, spelling errors and general errors in the paper for the past couple of months. I waited until I got today’s “new” Sunday paper before making up my mind. You lost me AJC. A couple of suggestions to keep readers who have not made up their minds yet. 1. Hire proof readers for the online and print version. 2. Get rid of silly columns like “Social Butterfly” that no one reads (except the people pictured in the column) and have more in depth local stories.