As goes the South, goes the rest of the country, Sen. Raphael Warnock, paraphrasing W.E.B.
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Moving into the movie space, the Cox-ownedAJCsigned with Hollywood agencyUTAthis year for representation.
DEADLINE:So why a documentary about hip-hop as your inaugural film?
Goodie Mob In ,The South Got Something to Say’Tyson Horne’AJC Films
ANDREW MORSE:So, we started thinking about doing this film because hip-hop is so important to Atlanta.
We started talking about whats our angle on this, lets do something and lets do something important.
We really want to connect to this dynamic and vibrant Black community in Atlanta.
AJC publisher Andrew MorseJason Getz / AJC
Its hugely important to us for our strategy going forward.
DEADLINE:…and, how important Atlanta hip-hop is to the country.
Its also really hard to look at hip-hop today and not see the influence of Atlanta.
I mean, its the sound that built the city.
DEADLINE:In that, why this new arm of the paper now?
MORSE:Weve established a pretty simple mission here.
DEADLINE:A sudden shift, no?
MORSE:Well, were not just were not just coming forward and saying we have this great idea.
All of a sudden were filmmakers.
Were saying we know there are these audiences there that we have to reach.
MORSE:Were confident that we can build the right video and audio capabilities.
So yes, its a bit of a departure like all of a sudden.
And I get it, the side glance …
But Cox didnt hire me to be a newspaper publisher.
And I didnt come here just to publish a newspaper, and Im confident we can do this.
DEADLINE:Lets talk about the support from Cox.
Theyve taken a so-called hyper-local approach in choppy media waters…
DEADLINE:… so is what you and theJournal-Constitutionare trying to do a pilot program for their larger chain?
MORSE:Id say this: look at Georgia, look at Atlanta.
Look at the critical role that this place plays in peoples lives it is so important.
For me, I mean, my background is …I will always be a journalist.
Im a producer, Im an executive, but Im a journalist at heart.
And, frankly, about the importance of local news.
We think we have a plan to be able to transform this organization.
I believe theNew York Timescrafted that playbook and have been executing it really well for the last 10 years.
So, with that experience in your rearview mirror, arent you a bit jaded about intent and execution?
You dont have to choose one audience anymore.
In the old days you had to broadcast or you printed a front page.
And that was it.
Thats what we are doing here now.
Are we going to seeSomething to Sayon Netflix later this year?
Is that where you are taking this, literally and figuratively?
We want to work with every platform and every online grid.
DEADLINE:Hows that going?
MORSE:Were working on it.
We started having conversations early because this project came together relatively quickly.
Were going to have different windowing conversations.
So, were having those conversations against an accelerated timeline.
In all seriousness, I mean, what they built with CNN Films is utterly extraordinary.
We want to provide that ourselves within a certain window.
DEADLINE:So, will it live on your website or on another platform, like a streamer?
MORSE:I expect that some content will premiere on a streamer and well bring it on to ajc.com.
DEADLINE:Building out like that, what is the plan in terms of trajectory?
Is it one or two projects for Year 1, then three or four in Year 2?
MORSE:Were starting to look at initial slate for next year.
And we have about a half-dozen projects that were looking at now.
DEADLINE:Which are?
DEADLINE:And how many future projects has he identified?
If we wind up with three great ones, then thats terrific and well build from there.
DEADLINE: Youve mentioned theAJCarchives a few times.
So what files, so to speak, what slices of Atlanta history excite you?
MORSE:I think great nonfiction, and there are a couple different lanes there.
Theres so much in the history of this town.
Theres an incredible story of a anAJCeditor who was kidnapped and held for ransom years ago.
You know, there are great stories everywhere among us.
Weve got a lot going on.
