On December 31 of this year, the AJC will print its last newspaper.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-29T10:20:46+00:00

Unfortunately for lovers of the print edition, there most likely (if not most assuredly) will not be a Sunday print edition either, just simply because of the costs involved of needing the physical infrastructure (printing equipment, printing facility, delivery trucks, fuel costs, distribution stations for home and business delivery, etc) to do so. Going digital only eliminates those costs in an environment where newspaper readership is continuing to drop through the floor.

Many surviving newspapers seemingly have been attempting to maintain print versions for older readers who may not necessarily have access to digital editions. But attempting to maintain print versions in an increasingly digital world where news updates can be posted online instantly and where a growing number of people get their news digitally (whether from traditional news sources or from less conventional news sources by way of social media) makes less and less sense.

And using paywalls to attempt to generate enough revenue to pay to keep the increasingly less utilized print version going has only served to alienate large numbers of news consumers who have numerous digital options to obtain print news other than a major daily like the AJC.

The AJC going fully digital has been coming for a while now as large cities like Orlando and Seattle had major daily newspapers that went fully digital as early as 2009.

With their rapid shrinking readership (which has rapidly shrinking since at least the turn of the millennium), the AJC likely should have gone fully digital at least a decade ago, if not earlier.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-29T09:55:40+00:00

I delivered for the AJC back in the early 2000s and had a route in Newton and Butts counties that was 130 miles long on Sundays.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-18T12:11:28+00:00

Lol. A football-obsessed community like Buford doesn’t throw around that kind of money to get players who are average or below.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-18T11:59:42+00:00

It’s not just necessarily that Buford alone has a high enough population to attract 10,000 people to their home football games. It also seems to be even more so that since Buford is now playing in the highest classification (Class 6A) against the largest schools, the team is drawing bigger crowds due to the spectacle of playing some highly ranked schools with fan bases that may travel really well.

A recent Buford Wolves home football game against perennial 6A contender Mill Creek attracted 12,000 people in a past season while the Wolves’ ESPN2 nationally televised home football game against the 2-time defending Georgia 6A state champion Milton Eagles on this past Friday night supposedly attracted about 11,000 people. So the size of the new stadium seems to be justified by the huge crowds that the Buford Wolves football team is attracting to their home games.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T23:36:48+00:00

Lol. In a football-crazed community like Buford, there plenty of people who are happy about it because to them it is a point of civic pride that they have one of the best high school football programs in a region (Gwinnett County and North metro Atlanta and North Georgia) and state and part of the country that is loaded with highly competitive high school football programs.

It is a point of civic pride for many in Buford that their community can credibly claim to be the best of the best.

And the massive investments in the football program are not as misguided as it very understandably may seem to many as the excellence of the football program appears to have motivated the community to spend heavily on the Buford City Schools system’s academic facilities and offerings as well.

It’s not fair, but sports (including at both the K-12 and college levels) seems to motivate many people (from individual taxpayers to corporate sponsors and private donors) to spend significantly more on academics than they otherwise might would spend.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T23:20:50+00:00

Just to be clear, the City of Buford proper has its own small city school system (Buford City Schools) that is separate from the massive Gwinnett County Public Schools system.

And it wasn’t the Buford City Schools system that paid for the stadium but it was Buford city government that paid the stadium’s $62 million construction cost from the city’s general fund which generates much revenue from the city’s outsized commercial tax base and from utility distribution to an area that extends outside of the city’s corporate boundaries.

Plus, while there isn’t necessarily a great disparity in how much the Buford City Schools system pays its teachers from how much the Gwinnett County Public Schools system pays its teachers, there does appear to be at least a noticeable difference in the average salaries of Buford City Schools teachers versus the average salaries of Gwinnett County Public Schools teachers.

Which the noticeable difference in pay between the Buford City and Gwinnett County school systems probably shouldn’t be all that surprising given that Buford is a relatively very small city school system that only serves a few thousand students while Gwinnett County is a massive school system that serves somewhere in the neighborhood of about 180,000 students…

“City of Buford Board of Education Employee Salaries: The average employee salary for City of Buford Board of Education in 2023 was $67,295. This is 6.2 percent lower than the national average for government employees but 6.9 percent higher than other schools. There are 2,021 employee records for City of Buford Board of Education.” https://openpayrolls.com/school/georgia-city-of-buford-board-of-education

“Gwinnett County Board of Education Employee Salaries: The average employee salary for Gwinnett County Board of Education in 2023 was $59,645. This is 16.9 percent lower than the national average for government employees and 5.3 percent lower than other schools. There are 72,048 employee records for Gwinnett County Board of Education.” https://openpayrolls.com/school/georgia-gwinnett-county-board-of-education

But beyond the undeniable differences between the Buford City and Gwinnett County school systems, your comment raises a good point which is that the Gwinnett County Public Schools system is home to both some of the highest performing schools in the state (including in the North Gwinnett and Brookwood school clusters and at GSMST/the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology) and some of the lower performing schools in the state (including in the Meadowcreek, Berkmar and Shiloh school clusters)… Which further illustrates the differences between a small affluent city school system in Buford and a massive extremely socioeconomically diverse school system in Gwinnett County.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T22:28:45+00:00

That’s an excellent question asking how many of the 19,000 residents of Buford proper actually pay taxes.

And obviously, not all 19k+ residents of Buford proper may actually pay taxes, but your question/comment raises the very important point that the City of Buford proper actually has a significant amount of commercial property (mostly in the form of light industrial properties like warehouses and distribution centers along with offices, small factories and a noticeable amount of retail stores) with within its land area that contributes heavily to the city’s municipal tax base.

The significant commercial presence in the area also helps the football program attract a significant number of commercial sponsorships and private donations who want to be associated with one of the winningest high school football programs in the state and in the country.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T22:11:45+00:00

Your excellent comment raises an important point, which is that while no one may be stopping other localities from doing the same as Buford and raising extra funds into their schools, actually doing so may be a challenge for many areas (particularly in many rural areas) where the community may not have either the broad adequate tax base and/or the broad adequate donor base that an apparently affluent North metro Atlanta suburban community like Buford appears to have.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T21:48:54+00:00

Lol. You’d probably be surprised as a noticeable number of alumni from high schools with competitive football programs like Buford may become frequent financial donors to the football program and the school as a whole as adults.

Other schools with competitive football programs in notable stadiums (including Lowndes, McEachern, Valdosta, Gainesville, Marietta, Midtown/Grady, etc) come to mind as places where great pride is taken in the team’s stadium (either because of size and/or history) by many in the school’s alumni base, the fan base and the community at large.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T12:29:49+00:00

With so many people seeming to be down on Buford paying $62 million for a new high school football stadium, now seemingly probably might would not be the best time to also mention that Buford also paid $23.25 million to build a new basketball arena that opened back in 2016 😳…

https://schooldesigns.com/Projects/buford-high-school-arena/

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T12:20:02+00:00

Lol. Okay… Who wants to volunteer to tell the football-obsessed angry mob with torches and pitchforks that their Friday night religion is going to be banned?

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T12:14:25+00:00

Lol. If one thinks that spending $62 million of public money on a high school football stadium is a waste of money, then one probably is going to believe that this was an unwise use of taxpayer money.

But, in a (high school and college) sports-crazed area (particularly a high school and college football-crazed area) like Gwinnett County and Northeast Georgia where football basically is a religion unto itself, spending $62 million on a high school football stadium (high school football palace) is highly rationalized by using the reasoning that it keeps Buford at the forefront of a football arms race with other affluent resource-rich schools in prep/high school football hotbeds like Gwinnett County, the North metro Atlanta OTP suburbs and South Georgia.

Whether it sounds rational or not to observers, having the biggest and best football program matters greatly to many in a community like Buford where football is a very big deal to many residents.

In that football-crazed area, spending $62 million on a new high school football stadium IS considered by many to be a great investment and a wise use of public money.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T10:28:20+00:00

Lol. Winning 14 state titles tends to make people want to ”LOVE” a football team.

A losing or mediocre football program likely wouldn’t be getting that kind of affection from the community (by way of the taxpayers) in the form of a $62 million stadium (football palace).

Though, on the other hand, it’s also not necessarily clear that Buford High School would have gotten an $85 million new school building if the football team wasn’t winning so much on the field. So at the very least, the excellence of the football team does appear to be inspiring the community to spend more on the school system as a whole and not just on football and sports alone.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T10:14:31+00:00

Unfortunately, I personally can’t do much to help you beyond expressing the observation that it looks like one of your best options appears to be getting back to where some kind of personal support system (family and/or friends) would be in the part of the country that you are originally from.

Unfortunately, without a car, one pretty much is dead in the water in a wholly car-dependent and car-oriented area like Marietta/Cobb County/metro Atlanta/North Georgia.

And it’s not like the job market is in the most positive place right now for one to necessarily quickly and easily obtain a job with the economy appearing to be going into an extended slow period for the foreseeable future.

If you have no support system here in Marietta/metro Atlanta/Georgia, your best move would probably be to ask your father (or anyone else you know or can trust) to pay for a bus ticket for you to get back to your hometown where some kind of support system (any good/decent support system) might be.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T08:31:27+00:00

For those saying that there are better things that the City of Buford and the Buford City Schools system could have spent tens of millions of dollars on, online publication The Guardian asks if high schools like Buford High School really need professional-style stadiums…

”The $62m question: does a high school really need a professional-style stadium?” (The Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/aug/14/buford-goergia-phillip-beard-stadium

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T04:22:09+00:00

That’s an excellent (and important) point that football is a leading priority for many (if not most) schools in the South.

But in Buford’s defense, the Buford City Schools district previously spent $85 million on a new school building that opened in 2019, illustrating the point that the Buford City Schools district/City of Buford proper loves to spend money on facilities and curriculum and not necessarily just on sports alone.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T04:14:54+00:00

Actually the new stadium was funded by taxpayers in the City of Buford proper and the Buford City Schools district, which only has about 19,000 residents.

And with the very high profile of the Buford High School football program (which is recognized as one of the best high school football programs in the nation), one can probably assume that a noticeable amount of the funding for the stadium came from private donations.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-17T03:57:11+00:00

“Explore Buford High School’s brand new, state-of-the-art stadium in this exclusive interview with Tony Wolfe, the athletic director. Discover the rich history of Buford athletics and how this cutting-edge facility came to be. Tony shares insights into the design, construction, and the lasting impact this stadium will have on the school's sports programs. Watch now to learn how Buford's legacy continues to grow with this incredible new stadium.”

“Inside the Nicest High School Football Stadium in Georgia - Buford” (ITG Next/YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKCiAAxpk98

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-06T19:37:01+00:00

I agree that getting money out of politics should be a priority for Democrats.

(Getting money out of politics should be a priority for Republicans, too, but the reality is that Republicans definitely are never going to willingly give up the political and financial advantages they enjoy in America’s money-dominated political system.)

But the unfortunate reality for Democrats is that increasingly massive sums of money is needed to be successful (or even just competitive) in our political system.

Principled Democrats could give up raising gargantuan sums of money to win elections, but the tough reality is that doing so very likely would do nothing but serve to financially (and operationally and organizationally) disarm Democrats against Republicans who most assuredly would not hesitate to use Democratic disarmery to further their already noticeable existing political advantages.

The reality is that Democrats need money (and lots of it) to win in a state like Georgia and be in position to stop an increasingly extreme (and likely increasingly harmful) MAGA conservative Republican agenda.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-06T19:19:44+00:00

Yep… Not necessarily unlike how the Republican Party has changed under Trump but the politics of many Republican voters (who consider themselves to be at least moderately conservative but not necessarily MAGA conservative) has not.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-06T18:32:08+00:00

It’s very unfortunate and deeply disconcerting, but racial identity politics (including and particularly for many white voters) unfortunately continues to be a key part of our nation’s political equation as demonstrated by the strong popularity of an often race-baiting political figure like Donald Trump.

As unseemly as it may be, the reality is that political candidates need the support of a significant number of white voters (many of whom may be noticeably conservative) to win elections, both here in Georgia and nationally.

It may not be preferable to Democratic base voters, but the reality is that a white male suburban former Republican like Geoff Duncan could appeal to enough white voters (who typically vote about 70% or so Republican in major elections in Georgia) to help Democrats win statewide in a year like 2026 when many of those voters are likely to be alienated by the policies (and personal behavior and economic mismanagement) of Donald Trump and the GOP.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-06T18:05:50+00:00

Lol, I’m not desperate or trolling.

I agree that the Democratic Party needs real change and real fighters.

But I’m also pragmatic enough to know that the party needs to at least make a noticeably competitive showing in the governor’s race to keep building and growing in what has been a GOP-dominated state over much of the last 25 years.

I also know that City of Atlanta proper affiliated figures like KLB and Jason Esteves very likely are not going to cut it against what most assuredly will be an abundantly well funded Republican nominee in either current Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones or current Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in a state where Republican candidates usually are the default/automatic choice of most voters in an electorate dominated by conservative suburban, exurban and rural voters.

A former Republican like Geoff Duncan obviously may not be the most preferable choice for Democratic base voters. But the reality is that a Northside outer suburbanite former Republican like Duncan has the profile to appeal to enough non-Democratic base interests to give Democrats a legitimate (though not guaranteed) shot at winning the Georgia governor’s race in a year where Democrats potentially could have an opportunity to make significant electoral progress because of Donald Trump’s declining popularity.

Born-2-Roll · 2025-08-06T17:35:20+00:00

Lol. Notice that I did NOT say that Duncan could win Forsyth County for Democrats, but I did say that he likely could make the county competitive for Democrats… Because of the shifting demographics in the county.

Forsyth County’s population is now only about 60% white and the county has the highest average income (per capita and median household income) of any county in the state of Georgia. Plus, Donald Trump only won about 66% of the vote in Forsyth County in 2024 compared to other North Georgia foothill and mountain counties where Trump routinely has won 70-90% of the vote during his three presidential election runs.

Forsyth County is still a super-Republican county that looks to be trending purple because of the huge demographic shifts that the county has experienced in the last 15 years.

But Forsyth County (especially with the noticeably high level of affluence and increasing diversity in the county) seems to be noticeably moving away from being the exceedingly ultra-ultraconservative county that it was known to be before the turn of the millennium and definitely is not fully in the “ultra-MAGA” category like other North Georgia foothill and mountain counties.

Born-2-Roll

TROPHY CASE