Horizon Section to be Discontinued

[ironchapman]

The Horizon section of the AJC will be discontinued as a separate section in the paper. The last Horizon section will be printed on September 5th.

Any thoughts?

I quite enjoyed reading it myself.

[ryanmckibben]

This was my favorite section. Say it ain't so...

[ironchapman]

I've heard it was quite innovative for the AJC in its earlier years. Any of our older forumers wish to comment on this?

[Lady Celeste]

I hate to see it go but I must admit.....in the beginning it was packed full of information. It was like reading the Atlanta Business Chronicle every Monday. Now it has dwindled down to information that could easy be placed in the metro section or in the individual area sections of the paper. I'm surprised that the editor didn't see fit to keep it. I guess economically it's inclusion was not financially feasible.

[ironchapman]

I hate to see it go but I must admit.....in the beginning it was packed full of information. It was like reading the Atlanta Business Chronicle every Monday. Now it has dwindled down to information that could easy be placed in the metro section or in the individual area sections of the paper. I'm surprised that the editor didn't see fit to keep it. I guess economically it's inclusion was not financially feasible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You do have a point. I read the Metro everyday. It seems like the info could go in there just as easily. It would also make it easier for me to find rather than having to search through the entire paper.

It will be missed, though.

[Scraper Enthusiast]

You do have a point. I read the Metro everyday. It seems like the info could go in there just as easily. It would also make it easier for me to find rather than having to search through the entire paper.

It will be missed, though.

During the Horizon section's early days (1995-1997), it was full of pro-development information. It was like it was loaded with new projects coming to town, articles on how Atlanta was going to keep up with the growth, etc. They even had areal pictures of parts of the metro Atlanta area and how development in the area had changed it over time. Building permits per week or month of every metro Atlanta county was also included. It gave you raw data on how much building was taking place.

Then, around 1999, the section's writers took on a "Green" stance. No longer did the section deal with malls, shopping centers, office buildings, building permits, etc. It tended to change, almost overnight, to things such as parkland, perhaps a few articles about transit here and there. If I remember correctly, it wasn't long after federal dollars for road construction were taken away that the paper changed its stance. To me, this changed set in motion the section's demise, as it simply wasn't as interesting to read, and it was much smaller in the amount of content included within.

So, I think that the Federal air quality guidelines, along with Left Wing writers, pretty much killed off the section (ie. lack of interest).

[teshadoh]

^ That is what the Atlanta Business Chronicle is for, which immediately rubberstamps approval for any development in Atlanta metro. Which of course makes sense, they are a pro-development news source so they should of course promote any development.

But what Atlanta desperately needs is more critical & especially savvy reporting regarding metro wide developments. Atlanta has gotten to it's current state, for good or bad, with little negative reporting for most of it's existence. It's time - at least for the past 20 years - to have a far more critical review of development, both suburban & intown.