I’ve lived in the city proper and the metro area for almost 40 years. When was it true?
See the list of the Pulitzer Prizes won by the Atlanta Constitution here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlanta_Journal-Constitution
“Merged” newspapers—or those owned by a nationwide newspaper chain—are seldom great or even very good.
Then there are those which are not “merged” or owned by a chain, which used to be good-to-great, but have become WORTHLESS—epitomized by the New York Times!!!!
Now one needs to be one’s own “editor”—surfing sites such as Breitbart, FR, and even non-US sites. College students, for example, who “only read the NYT” become woefully uninformed “snowflakes” who are prey to crooked Dim politicians, and even to global islam!!!!