So tonight I read “If You Build It…” from the Columbia Journalism Review on the changes at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Change management intrigues me, as does newsroom culture and the transition to digital, and the Columbia Journalism Review piece on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s efforts in these areas is a great study.

The changes at the AJC boil down to this quote in the CJR article from AJC publisher John Mellott: “What our business will be about going forward is the skillful management of the slow decline of the printed product and the accelerated growth of the Internet.”

Some of the AJC’s moves have stirred up some debate in journalism circles in the past several months, especially in terms of print product moves. These include putting an end to the chase of “marginal readers,” cutting back on home-delivery discounts and more. Instead, the newspaper company will focus on making the print publication a necessity for the loyal, core print readers and heavily investing in digital media.

The renewed focus on digital media has meant changes in job focuses and daily assignments, and some AJ staffers have criticized the way managers at the newspaper handled that transition. “To no one’s surprise, the transition has entailed costs: the trauma of change, procedural glitches that are still being worked out, and the departure of dozens of journalists unwilling or unable to adapt to the New World,” CJR’s Julia M. Klein wrote. The newspaper collapsed and reorganized departments into more of a “pitching and catching” system.  Please put this in your “worthy read” file.  

Note: The American Journalism Review also had an article largely about the changes at AJC in its last issue.

Other, shorter things I read: 

The Washington Post’s Jose Antonio Vargas talked to Faye Anderson, Dan Gillmor and others to look at the myriad questions surrounding citizen journalism – including whether citizen journalists are actually journalists – for his Tuesday article “Storming the News Gatekeepers”. 

An American Journalism Review article reported there are some dark clouds on the horizon of the otherwise sunny outlook for newspaper.coms.  Though much of the information wasn’t necessarily *new*, the article is a very good summary of the issues newspaper Web site managers are facing. The issues include slowing growth in online advertising and audience.

I’m in Los Angeles now (hence the long plane rides) for the Kelsey Group Interactive Local Media conference… look for posts tonight and the rest of this week on newspaper-related highlights.