In 1980, the company Scripps Howard (now E. W. Scripps Company) bought the Cordovan Corporation, which owned the Atlanta Business Chronicle and other business newspapers. From 1980 to 1983, Carol Carter served as the paper's editor. In 1986, the paper was sold to American City Business Journals.

In 1988, the Atlanta Business Chronicle was the first to break the major story that the Sumitomo Life Insurance Company