Jim Townsend.
Jack Lange.
Norman Shavin.
Larry Woods.
Neil Shister.
Lee Walburn.
Rebecca Burns.
Steve Fennessy.
Betsy Riley.
Scott Freeman.
These are the former Atlanta magazine editors on whose shoulders I now stand. I wish I had met Townsend, who launched this magazine in 1961 and came to be called “the Father of City Magazines” by Time. From everything I know about him, he was a king of excess in a time when magazine editors could get away with such things. But he was also a genius who could spot the creativity simmering in a young Anne Rivers Siddons and coax Pat Conroy into processing the searing pain of his divorce on Atlanta’s pages.
Walburn, this magazine’s editor from 1987 to 2002, remains a legend around the office. He trained Kevin Benefield—now editor of our travel ancillary, Southbound—who in turn trained me. Although I’ve never met Walburn (I joined Southbound in 2013), his respect for process, demand for editorial integrity, and laser focus on who our readership is and what they care about has been surgically implanted in my brain.
In the late aughts, when I was a freelance writer trying my best to squeeze a living out of 75 cents a word, I landed an assignment with Atlanta Magazine’s Home (now Georgia Design). The story was about the best ways to care for your leather couch; my editor was Betsy Riley. I’ll never forget the thrill of seeing my byline in an Atlanta magazine–branded publication for the first time. Never mind that I was writing about leather cleaner. Atlanta was, and remains, the pinnacle of magazine journalism in this city. And I was part of it. After I cashed my check, I taped my pay stub to the wall of my home office.
I wish I still had that pay stub. It was lost a couple of years ago during my family’s move from one Brookhaven house to another. But my reverence for this magazine and what it has meant to Atlanta since 1961 remains. Substacks, hyperlocal sites, Instanews sources, and the like have their place, but they mostly cover single prisms in our city’s kaleidoscope. At Atlanta, every page helps readers make sense of the big picture: What’s in style and where can I buy it locally? What’s the hot new Thai restaurant in the Stockyards like? Who has new ideas to help prevent the spread of HIV in Atlanta, known for its high rate of infection? How can I plant azaleas that bloom all the way into summer? You’ll find all of these stories in this issue alone.
I hope you’ll continue to rely on us for quality journalism written by locals, for locals—never regurgitated articles printed in magazines around the country, and never anything generated by artificial intelligence. You might be wondering how the World Cup is going to affect your life this summer. We’re working on that story. Or perhaps you’re trolling for a cool restaurant to impress out-of-town guests. We’ve got you covered. I’m also on the hunt for new, creative voices. The next generation of Anne Rivers Siddonses and Pat Conroys are in our midst, and I want their storytelling magic on our pages.
I am humbled to follow 10 editors who gave everything they had to ensure the magazine that bears this city’s name would continue 65 years and counting. I’ll do my best to honor their legacy, one issue at a time.
This article appears in our April 2026 issue.
