AJC's Wallace: Attracting Youth To Print Not a Priority

Julia Wallace, Editor-in-Chief of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, delivered the 29th annual Ralph McGill lecture at the University of Georgia yesterday.
After her speech, Wallace fielded questions from the audience.
When asked how much of a priority, or what efforts the paper is making to attract young readers, Wallace replied that the management made a big decision over the past year to NOT try to attract young readers.
"Young readers are clearly not going to come to newspapers," Wallace said.
The AJC wants to focus its efforts on people who will come to read the newspaper, while at the same time build up its digital operation because that's where young people will wind up, Wallace said.
"We have a huge opportunity for young people in the digital world," she said.
The definition of what is "news" may be different for young readers, Wallace said, noting the popularity of so-called "fake news" shows from comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
The paper would not try to include such humorous news stories ala the Onion model to appeal to young readers because the core traditional readers who don't watch the Colbert show would be put off by such content, Wallace said.