In October 1994, I was driving to my Downtown newspaper job from Morningside, watching new coffee shops and restaurants building out along North Highland, and thought the emerging neighborhood was missing a significant voice: a neighborhood newspaper.
I took a week’s vacation and started walking the streets of Atlanta 30306, telling merchants I was launching a newspaper with that name that would tell the story of the zip code’s people, stores, and restaurants. We would not discuss crime or politics, but we would write about religion.
The first ads were bought by the supportive owners of San Francisco Coffee, Murphy’s, and Atkins Park. Soon, I sold more ads than I expected and needed more articles. I enlisted high school classmates Dr. Tom Calk and Charles Driebe to write about healthcare and music. My sister Van Waddy wrote about spirituality, finding a devoted audience. My architect girlfriend wrote about Neel Reid homes in Druid Hills. My daughter Sally, who designed the newspaper’s logo, wrote about teens and my son Thomas wrote about kids.
I still didn’t have enough funding to pay the expected expense of $5,000 to print 20,000 copies and mail 10,000 to all 30306 households. My girlfriend urged me to visit her church where minister Charles Stanley preached that if you were receiving a call from God to go start a new mission, you best pray and listen. I did. When I got home, I had a voicemail from a Realtor asking if he could buy the full-page back cover. I had my answer.
The next day, I quit my job. My boss thought I was crazy. “Do you have a staff or any funding?” she asked. “No,” I said. “But I have a good idea and faith it will work.” Fortunately, it did. I stayed up for three nights straight editing, designing, and producing the inaugural 24-page issue. I watched as the postman dropped issues in mailboxes and I talked merchants into putting stacks by their front doors. The phone calls began – from neighbors wanting to write, take photographs, illustrate cartoons, buy and sell ads. A reporter from the AJC called to write my story. I hired my first employee six months later. Soon we had a staff of 12. One, Jan, became my wife 10 years later.
Things didn’t always go smoothly. Civic leaders in Buckhead and Downtown urged us to expand there. They weren’t as successful and we began to lose money. I appealed to readers for contributions and they responded. We expanded the original concept to Atlanta Intown. I found a business partner in real estate mogul Tom Cousins, who paid off my debts and funded our growth. Then Sept. 11 hit and the following recession forced me to sell my remaining portion to his family office.
The great news is that, 30 years later, Atlanta Intown is on its fifth owner, and my friend Keith Pepper and team are doing a fine job covering the stories of what has become a popular section of town. Every time I pick up a new issue, I feel a little heart-tug, knowing we helped make Intown a great place to live, work – and publish.
INTOWN @ 30: Read more features from Atlanta Intown’s 30 anniversary issue here.
