Mitch's Media Musings - June 2024

Mitch's Media Musings

May 16 - June 15, 2024

General

A correction since I mixed this up last month:

• Dunwoody Reporter (a Rough Draft paper) - Got Dunwoody news? Call Cathy Cobbs!

• Dunwoody Crier (an Appen Media paper) - Got Dunwoody news? Call Hayden Sumlin

Mara Davis will be serving as a Chapter Governor for The Recording Academy.

Former CNN anchor Nick Charles has been named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Atlanta Jewish Times - Jillian Gerson joins as the paper's online content coordinator. She'll manage their website and social media and assist with general editorial assignments.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

• Staff writer Bo Emerson is retiring

• Falcon's beat writer Orlando Ledbetter has been awarded the Bill Nunn Memorial Award

• Eric Mandel joins as Editor of Newsletters. You'll remember his from time at the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

• Investigative reporter Samantha Hogan has received a national journalism award — the Livingston Award for Young Journalists — according to an AJC article that notes the work was "for her investigative work at The Maine Monitor, where she worked before joining the AJC’s investigative team earlier this year."

Georgia Public Broadcasting

• Jeremy Powell promoted to Director of Podcasting

• Ambria Burton joins as Digital News Producer

Macon Melody - A news Macon news source. Coming soon.

Macon Telegraph - The Telegraph announced that beginning Aug. 19, they will only be printing papers for Wednesdays and Saturdays. In its 198th year, the newspaper says “this move gives us the freedom to more aggressively pursue quality reporting that we can bring you online.”

Natural Awakenings / Atlanta - We've added this publication to our Leff's Atlanta Media database. The magazine covers natural health, nutrition, fitness, personal growth, green living, creative expression and the products and services that support a healthy lifestyle.

NewsNation - We've added Atlanta-based Booking Producer Gary Freedman into the Leff's Atlanta Media database.

Newton County Journal - We've added this online publication and its publisher/editor Gabriel Stovall to the database. They've also got their "Town Square Podcast," hosted by Stovall and Trey Bailey.

Rough Draft - Three Rough Draft newsletters have been shortlisted in the Media Voices 2024 Publisher Newsletter Awards! Best Entertainment & Culture Newsletter: Sketchbook; Best Food & Drink Newsletter: Side Dish; Best Local & Community Newsletter: Rough Draft Atlanta

Urbanize Atlanta - Josh Green's new book is getting some greats buzz! "Secrets of Ash" won first place in the literary fiction category of the 2024 IndieReader Discovery Awards, an international competition now in its 13th year. The book scored 14.6 of 15 stars after three rounds of judging by literary agents, editors, and other industry professionals. The novel is also shortlisted on Garden & Gun magazine's "Great Summer Reading List" published June 4, where it's described as "a fine marriage of fast-paced plot and elegant, place-driven prose" set in Atlanta and the North Georgia Mountains. 

WANF - Former reporter Trason Bragg has join KHOU TV in Houston as weekend morning news anchor/reporter.

WAGA

• If you're not watching Paul Milliken's segments on Good Day Atlanta, you're missing some great content! Watch Good Day weekends from 7 - 11 a.m. and then catch his "Behind the Scenes with Paul Milliken" show on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 am.

• Medical reporter Beth Galvin has taken a buyout offer and left the station

• I-Team reporter Randy Travis has taken a buyout offer and left the station

• Good Day Atlanta anchor Sharon Lawson departs as of June 5

• Fox Soul has renewed the Portia show for season three (Details)

WSB TV - Congrats to Condace Pressley for graduating from Leadership Cobb

WXIA - Carol Fowler will join as Director of Content effective Dec. 11

News from the PR Dept.

• Four Georgia based PR agencies are on Newsweek's list of the nation's best: They include Brave PR, Cookerly, 360 Media, and the Nebo Agency. Link to details.

• Charlie Hayslett has been named Scholar in Residence at the recently created Center for Middle Georgia Studies at Middle Georgia State University in Macon. He'll be working with others at the University to try to develop remedies for the deepening problems afflicting rural Georgia. In addition, he'll be writing a weekly "Trouble in God's Country" column that is being made available to all the newspapers in the state. The first of those columns went out late May and is up on the site of the Dublin Courier Herald.

• Carter Long is the new Director of Communications for the City of Sandy Springs

• Ronna Charles has a new job as Director of Communications at the Goizueta Brain Institute

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