Click for Atlanta, Georgia Forecast

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Take a look at my main blog site:

Misc Change to Contact Info:  you can reach me at:  harris2016@aol.com the email mentioned above is now out of date, but for some reason I can't get back into that area to change it.

Use this link to access the main AJC blog site:
http://www.atlantajournal-constitution.blogspot.com



Note:  In a new addition to my own years old fight against AJC littering in Metro Atlanta there is now a new site which is updated and replaces an old 'dot org' pay site which was set to be deactivated.  My 4 'old' sites remain.  

Here is the link to this new site:  http://stopajcreach.wordpress.com/

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One very minor bit of slightly positive info is that after years and years of A+ ratings from the BBB the AJC is now 'down' to a B+ for failure to reply this year to 2 complaints and failure to satisfy 2 other complaints (again this year).

So while I usually refer to the BBB as the Better Cover Up Bureau it just might be worth while to file an online complaint with them:
BBB of NE Georgia
503 Oak Place, Suite 590
Atlanta, GA 30349

www.bbb.org

The quickest way is online at:
http://atlanta.bbb.org/
 
Customer Complaints Sumary

114 complaints closed with BBB in last 3 years, 48 closed in last 12 months

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2013 AJC Circulation Figures -
Circulation averages for the six months ended 3/31/13 compared to one year ago figures:

JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA (M-F)
2012: 180,592 2013: 231,094 (up +50,502)

JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA SUN 
2012:  402,602  2013:  644,287   (up +241,685)

JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, ATLANTA AVG  (Sat)
2012: 174,251   2013:  163,721  (down -10,530)



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ACI is the delivery service for the AJC, they are having serious problems in Boston, here is the info FYI:

Monday, January 4, 2016


Globe splits deliveries between two companies



JOHN IOVEN/GLOBE STAFF/FILE
The Boston Globe has rehired a former distribution partner to help fix its delivery problems.


After more than a week of confounding problems getting newspapers to subscribers, The Boston Globe has turned to its former distribution partner to handle about half of its home deliveries across the region, Globe chief executive officer Mike Sheehan said on Tuesday.

The deal with Publishers Circulation Fulfillment Inc. follows an unexpectedly difficult rollout for the Globe’s new distribution firm, ACI Media Group Inc., which left tens of thousands of newspapers undelivered in its first week after taking over distribution within the Boston region on Dec. 28.

PCF will take over the routes starting Monday, and may help with delivery of this Sunday’s paper. Sheehan predicted “an extremely rapid return to 100 percent deliveries and improved customer service.’’“We can’t apologize too much,” Sheehan said, moments after the new deal was consummated. 

Maryland-based PCF has agreed to resume Globe deliveries throughout a swath of territory defined roughly as extending from the Cape Cod Canal to Boston and west to Wellesley and Weston, as well as territory north of Boston from Peabody to Newburyport, and east to Rockport. This territory includes about 50 percent of the home delivery customers in the greater Boston market, Sheehan said.

Globe, new distributor trade blame

The day ended with no clarity about when all subscribers could once again count on getting their newspapers.

ACI will ideally devote its delivery resources to fewer subscribers in more confined geographic areas, places they’ve avoided significant problems, Sheehan said. “This simplifies things for them and will allow them to be successful,” Sheehan said. The distribution areas shifting to PCF are the ones where ACI had experienced the most problems making its deliveries, Globe officials said.

The move comes after two days of negotiations with the companies, during which ACI agreed to take the reduced role, Sheehan said.   “These were not at all contentious negotiations,” Sheehan said of the talks with ACI, a Long Beach, Calif., company

In a statement, ACI president Jack Klunder said, “We understand how important The Boston Globe is to its subscribers and the community at large, and this will help restore delivery dependability as quickly as possible.” Klunder apologized for “disappointing some readers as we entered the market.”

ACI officials acknowledged in interviews Sunday that after a week on the job, they still did not have enough drivers to cover all the routes. The company said it was aggressively trying to hire more, but faulted the Globe for not properly warning its readers about the disruptions that would come with the switch.

The Globe has about 115,000 daily subscribers and 205,000 on Sunday. About 90,000 daily and 190,000 Sunday subscribers live within the territory ACI took over last month.

The breakdown of home delivery triggered overwhelming frustration and anger from readers, who flooded the paper with complaints that so overwhelmed the telephone system it made it difficult for reporters to place calls from the newsroom. Globe staff from departments throughout the organization volunteered to deliver the paper last Sunday, the largest distribution day of the week.

Sheehan said Globe executives came back to PCF “to get newspapers back into the hands of our readers as quickly as possible.”  Asked what the paper has learned from the disastrous past 10 days, Sheehan gave a rueful smile and said, “Where do you want me to start? My God.”

“It is extremely difficult to do something like this without a transition period,” he offered. “To flip a switch overnight is more disruptive than anyone would have ever imagined.”

“And more important,” he said, “for a company that’s about to invest a lot of money in a print production facility in Taunton, it’s a reaffirmation of how important the print product is and is going to be for a long time.”

“We learned how many people in this market for whom the [printed] Globe is their link to the outside world.”  And, he said, the paper learned, “Never let down the customers again.”



 Delivery problems could last up to 6 months, distributor says


The Boston Globe got a double-whammy of bad news regarding its switch to a new delivery service.





Boston Globe staffers helped deliver the Sunday print edition amid delivery service woes.
Suzanne Kreiter / The Boston Globe
Delivery problems with The Boston Globe’s new circulation service affected up to 10 percent of newspaper subscribers, and it could take four to six months before service returns to normal, the Globereports.
That’s a double-whammy of bad news for the Globe, which last weekswitched delivery companies from Publishers Circulation Fulfillment to ACI Media Group.
Globe chief executive Mike Sheehan said the switch was part of a plan to provide better service, and that ACI brought “material” cost savings. Sheehan told the Globe he would not have made the switch if they had known the severity of the coming service problems.
“Ten percent of our people not getting papers?” he said. “That was never communicated to us. That goes far beyond any reasonable definition of disruption.”
However, ACI executive Jack Klunder said the company had warned the Globe of coming disruptions. Klunder said service will get back to normal in four to six months.
“We were adamant that these guys communicate to the readers early and often about the disruption that would take place,” Klunder said. “We were pretty clear about that and I’m not sure the communication plan was as graphic as I suggested it should be.”
In a show of good faith, teams of editorial and business staffers for the Globe volunteered to help deliver the Sunday paper.
One key problem with the service was made clear when the volunteers were handed a delivery route “that appeared to have been prepared by someone under the influence of methamphetamine,” columnist Kevin Cullen wrote Monday morning.
“The route wasn’t circuitous. It was circus. If you handed an Etch-a-Sketch to a really drunk guy and told him to turn the knobs, that’s what our route would look like,” he wrote.