About

With new printing presses, Col. E. F. Hoge published the first issue of the Evening Journal on February 24, 1883, in Atlanta, Georgia. The four-page daily was organized under a stock company with Hoge as editor in chief and Charles S. Atwood as general manager. The paper aligned politically with the Democratic Party and maintained that support throughout 20th-century political realignments. When Atlanta’s nationally recognized hotel, the Kimball House, burned on August 12, 1883, the Journal rose to prominence by being the first newspaper to report the incident. Hoge published an extra edition covering the fire and employed hundreds of newsboys to distribute the paper.

In 1885, an ailing Hoge sold his controlling interest to John Paul Jones and F. F. Wilson. After Hoge’s death on August 10, 1885, Jones purchased all outstanding shares. By June 1887, Jones, now sole proprietor of the paper, sold the Atlanta Journal to a newly organized stock company headed by Hoke Smith, Henry H. Cabaniss, and Josiah Carter. All shareholders of the newly named Atlanta Journal Company were prominent Atlanta residents, and the Atlanta Journal experienced significant growth from the ensuing capital. By late 1887, the paper became the first Southern newspaper to publish a daily woman’s page. Carter was editor in chief, until F. H. Richardson replaced him in January 1891.

In 1894, the Atlanta Journal gained another edge over the Atlanta Constitution [LCCN: sn82015857] when the Associated Press gave the Journal exclusive rights to its full day report. In 1898, the paper’s weekly edition became a semi-weekly. The Atlanta Semi-weekly Journal went on to circulate until March 9, 1920, when it expanded into the Atlanta Tri-weekly Journal.

In April 1900, James R. Gray, Morris Brandon, and H. M. Atkinson bought the Atlanta Journal Corporation for $276,500, a far cry from the $10,000 Hoke Smith’s company paid in 1887. Gray served as editor in chief until his death in 1917, and John S. Cohen became president, a position which he maintained until his own death in 1935. The Atlanta Journal continued its steady growth by absorbing the Atlanta Daily News [LCCN: sn89053699], a rival evening daily, in October 1901. In 1902, the paper published daily, semi-weekly, and Sunday editions. During the 20th century, the Journal employed several noteworthy writers, including Corra Harris, Margaret Mitchell, Erskine Caldwell, Olin Miller, Ward Greene, Grantland Rice, Ward Morehouse, Rogers Winter, and Harold Ross.

In December 1939, James Middleton Cox, purchased the Atlanta Georgian [LCCN: sn89053729] and Atlanta Journal as part of Cox Enterprises’ expansion into Georgia; Cox discontinued the Georgian and moved much of its staff and materials to the Atlanta Journal. In 1950, a 70-year rivalry ended when the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution came under the same parent company, Atlanta Newspapers, Inc. The titles continued to publish under individual mastheads, however, until officially becoming the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2001. The newspaper continues to publish today as Fulton County’s paper of record.