Atlanta Editor Resigns in Management Dispute

Bill Kovach, editor of the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, resigned today because of “an irreconcilable difference in management styles,” Publisher Jay Smith announced.

Kovach’s abrupt departure came nearly two years after he left his job as Washington bureau chief of the New York Times to take over the Atlanta newspapers. His appointment was widely seen as part of an attempt by the newspapers to achieve national prominence.

Smith said the difference in management styles surfaced in a discussion earlier today.

However, Smith said he felt that he and Kovach were in accord philosophically over the direction the newspapers have taken under Kovach.

“I am proud of the progress we have made under Bill,” Smith said. “It is my commitment that we will continue to grow, continue to find better ways to serve readers and continue to add to the stature of the newspapers and Atlanta.”

Kovach’s plans were not immediately known.

His resignation was announced to the Journal-Constitution newsroom by Assistant Managing Editor Wendell (Sonny) Rawls, who followed Kovach from the New York Times.

The news stunned reporters, who in 1986 had greeted word of his appointment with jubilation.

Kovach grew up in Tennessee reading the Atlanta papers, then under the leadership of civil rights advocate Ralph McGill.

He said he took the editorship of the Cox Newspapers’ flagship to “strengthen McGill’s newspaper and to practice journalism the way I envisioned it.”

He stressed hard news and aggressiveness, and among his successes was a series outlining how some Atlanta banks were refusing loans to residents of predominantly black neighborhoods.