With a sweeping staff cut, the AJC has iced-out daily print news coverage of life in Gwinnett County. Seems nothing’s terribly interesting out there. And whatever there is, it’s certainly not impacting the bottom line. Given last night’s MARTA referendum, maybe Gwinnettians should just build a moat and a drawbridge now. And oh yeah, get a few blogs going. You’re gonna need ‘em out there in the ‘burbs. Now more than ever.
And if you haven’t had enough BS with your morning coffee, read this funny memo from AJC publisher, John Mellott. Funny because Mellott neglects to mention the biggest phenom that’s tanked newspaper advertising nationwide: Craig’s List.
A few key blogs in Gwinnett, and hey, even the AJC’s Editor, Julia Wallace, might have to curtail churning out her special brand of bs-laden memo too. You can read yet another prime specimen of her notes ‘o arrogance here. No one does corporate spin like that gal Julia!
Paging Arianna. ATL primed for online local news showdown at the lagging Marietta Street corral.
UPDATE: OMG! Stop the presses! (Ooops, they’ve already done that.) Alert the media then. Julia Wallace has been sighted commenting on a blog. I swear to God this is true. With full transparency too, albeit it IS an AJC-generated blog. Pigs are surely flyin’ overhead in Dixie now. Scroll comments here to see for yourself.
Mostly Media 
What’s interesting is Craigslist in the past year has experienced an influx of spammers that will threaten its existence. An actual business model may yet become necessary for classifieds again simply because free sites won’t have the resources to keep the spammers out. They’re getting too good.
Says John Nagle, founder of SiteTruth, in a Techworld article:
It will be interesting to see whether open source or commercial interests fill that void. Either way, it doesn’t look like newspaper companies will be equipped to do so.
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Very interesting @BigRussT. Very interesting.
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My Google reader is slooooooooooow. Am seeing this AFTER my Tweets. Lovely.
Anywhoo – I’d agree that Rusty has made a very interesting point. Last year I used ajccars and craig’s list and was blown away by the difference in the service. Why go back to paid advertising that doesn’t offer the immediate feedback that a free service does? Other than the spam that comes with the free service…
I am sad that the paper is having to consolidate its print operations, but as you say, this is the perfect time for them to step up their online coverage of “niche” areas (quotes are mine).
Sandi K. S.
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That said, hackers currently appear to be having a tough time with the new Craigslist phone verification, but give it time and they’ll probably figure it out.
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Well it’s a start. I’m still saving the bottle of champagne for when the AJC guts out the other 92% of morons and shuts its doors for good. Probably within the next 5 years.
Its only a matter of time before the liberal media is gutted out. You can only push anti-white, anti-American, socialist viewpoints for so long before people wise up and stop supporting you.
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