Why Julia Wallace is no longer editor at the AJC

Wow, I write a cover story about how the AJC, under Editor Julia Wallace, is attempting to reposition itself as a community newspaper for the northern suburbs, I go out of town for a few days and when I get back, Wallace is gone and the daily paper has a new leader. Pretty crazy.

I'll admit now that the above headline should actually read, "Why is Julia Wallace no longer editor at the AJC?" Because, of course, I'm not privy to her mind or the inner workings of the Cox machine. But I can certainly offer semi-informed speculation — informed, BTW, by the prevailing theory circulating around the AJC's own newsroom.

But first, let's address the question of whether Wallace's new assignment, as "a senior vice president of news and programming" for the Cox Media Group, and her transfer to Dayton, Ohio — when Cox's corporate HQ was literally across the street from the AJC — represents a promotion. The short answer is, Like hell. Again, neither I nor the AJC rank and file have access to internal Cox memos, but let's get real. No one I've talked to believes for a second that Wallace's move was voluntary. I'd agree. She stayed at the helm of what seemed to be a sinking ship for so long that I can't help but believe that Wallace wants only to be a big-city newspaper editor.

I'm reminded that one of Cox's quirks is that, when it wants to shed itself of a big-cheese employee, it tends to create a highly amorphous job title into which to kick said cheese upstairs. Typically, a few months later, when attention has shifted elsewhere, the exiled employee quietly moves on.