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 Cover of the September 2020 issue | |
| Editor-in-chief | Jeffrey Goldberg |
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| Former editors | James Bennet |
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| Publisher | Laurene Powell Jobs |
| Total circulation (2024) | 1,107,293[1] |
| Founder | |
| Founded | 1857; 168 years ago (1857) |
| First issue | November 1, 1857; 168 years ago (1857-11-01) (asThe Atlantic Monthly) |
| Company | Emerson Collective |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Boston until 2005;Washington, D.C., U.S. since 2005[2] |
| Language | English |
| Website | theatlantic.com |
| ISSN | 1072-7825 (print) 2151-9463 (web) |
| OCLC | 936540106 |
The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based inWashington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 inBoston asThe Atlantic Monthly, a literary and cultural magazine that published leading writers' commentary on education, theabolition of slavery, and other major political issues of that time. Its founders includedFrancis H. Underwood[3][4] and prominent writersRalph Waldo Emerson,Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Harriet Beecher Stowe, andJohn Greenleaf Whittier.[5][6]James Russell Lowell was its first editor.[7] During the 19th and 20th centuries, the magazine also published the annualThe Atlantic MonthlyAlmanac.[8] The magazine was purchased in 1999 by businessmanDavid G. Bradley, who fashioned it into a general editorial magazine primarily aimed at serious national readers and "thought leaders"; in 2017, he sold a majority interest in the publication toLaurene Powell Jobs'sEmerson Collective.[9][10][11]
The magazine was published monthly until 2001, when 11 issues were produced; since 2003, it has published 10 per year. It dropped "Monthly" from the cover with the January/February 2004 issue, and officially changed the name in 2007.[12] In 2024, it announced that it will resume publishing monthly issues in 2025.[13][14] In 2016, the periodical was named Magazine of the Year by theAmerican Society of Magazine Editors.[15] In 2022, its writers wonPulitzer Prizes for feature writing and, in 2022, 2023, and 2024The Atlantic won the award for general excellence by the American Society of Magazine Editors. In 2024, it was reported that the magazine had crossed one million subscribers[13] and become profitable, three years after losing $20 million in a single year and laying off 17% of its staff.
As of 2024, the website's executive editor isAdrienne LaFrance, the editor-in-chief isJeffrey Goldberg, and the CEO isNicholas Thompson. According to a 2025Pew Research Center study on educational differences among audiences of 30 major U.S.news outlets,The Atlantic had the highest proportion ofcollege-educated readers, with 62% of its audience holding at least abachelor's degree.[16]
In the autumn of 1857,Moses Dresser Phillips, a publisher fromBoston, createdThe Atlantic Monthly. The plan for the magazine was launched at a dinner party, which was described in a letter by Phillips:
I must tell you about a little dinner-party I gave about two weeks ago. It would be proper, perhaps, to state the origin of it was a desire to confer with my literary friends on a somewhat extensive literary project, the particulars of which I shall reserve till you come. But to the Party: My invitations included onlyR. W. Emerson,H. W. Longfellow,J. R. Lowell,Mr. Motley (the 'Dutch Republic' man),O. W. Holmes,Mr. Cabot, andMr. Underwood, our literary man. Imagine your uncle as the head of such a table, with such guests. The above named were the only ones invited, and they were all present. We sat down at three P.M., and rose at eight. The time occupied was longer by about four hours and thirty minutes than I am in the habit of consuming in that kind of occupation, but it was the richest time intellectually by all odds that I have ever had. Leaving myself and 'literary man' out of the group, I think you will agree with me that it would be difficult to duplicate that number of such conceded scholarship in the whole country besides... Each one is known alike on both sides of the Atlantic, and is read beyond the limits of the English language.[17]
At that dinner he announced his idea for the magazine:
Mr. Cabot is much wiser than I am. Dr. Holmes can write funnier verses than I can. Mr. Motley can write history better than I. Mr. Emerson is a philosopher and I am not. Mr. Lowell knows more of the old poets than I. But none of you knows the American people as well as I do.[17]
The Atlantic's first issue was published in November 1857, and quickly gained notability as one of the finest magazines in the English-speaking world.
In 1878, the magazine absorbedThe Galaxy, a competitor monthly magazine founded a dozen years previously byWilliam Conant Church and his brotherFrancis P. Church; it had published works byMark Twain,Walt Whitman,Ion Hanford Perdicaris andHenry James.[18]
In 1879,The Atlantic had offices inWinthrop Square in Boston and at 21Astor Place inNew York City.[19]
A leading literary magazine,The Atlantic has published many significant works and authors. It was the first to publish pieces by the abolitionistsJulia Ward Howe ("Battle Hymn of the Republic" on February 1, 1862), andWilliam Parker, whoseslave narrative, "The Freedman's Story" was published in February and March 1866. It also publishedCharles W. Eliot's "The New Education", a call for practical reform that led to his appointment to the presidency ofHarvard University in 1869, works byCharles Chesnutt before he collected them inThe Conjure Woman (1899), and poetry and short stories, and helped launch many national literary careers.[citation needed] In 2005, the magazine won a National Magazine Award for fiction.[21]
Editors have recognized major cultural changes and movements. For example, of the emerging writers of the 1920s,Ernest Hemingway had his short story "Fifty Grand" published in the July 1927 edition. Harking back to its abolitionist roots, in its August 1963 edition, at the height of thecivil rights movement, the magazine publishedMartin Luther King Jr.'s defense ofcivil disobedience, "Letter from Birmingham Jail",[22] under the headline "The Negro Is Your Brother".[23]
The magazine has published speculative articles that inspired the development of new technologies. The classic example isVannevar Bush's essay "As We May Think" (July 1945), which inspiredDouglas Engelbart and laterTed Nelson to develop the modernworkstation andhypertext technology.[24][25]
The Atlantic Monthly founded the Atlantic Monthly Press in 1917; for many years, it was operated in partnership withLittle, Brown and Company. Its published books includedDrums Along the Mohawk (1936) andBlue Highways (1982). The press was sold in 1986; today it is an imprint ofGrove Atlantic.[26]
In addition to publishing notable fiction and poetry,The Atlantic has emerged in the 21st century as an influential platform forlongform storytelling and newsmaker interviews. Influential cover stories have includedAnne Marie Slaughter's "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" (2012) andTa-Nehisi Coates's "A Case for Reparations" (2014).[27] In 2015,Jeffrey Goldberg's "Obama Doctrine" was widely discussed by American media and prompted response by many world leaders.[28]
As of 2022, writers and frequent contributors to the print magazine includedJames Fallows, Jeffrey Goldberg, Ta-Nehisi Coates,Caitlin Flanagan,Jonathan Rauch,McKay Coppins, Gillian White,Adrienne LaFrance,Vann R. Newkirk II,Derek Thompson,David Frum, Jennifer Senior,George Packer,Ed Yong, and James Parker.
On August 2, 2023, it was announced that Jeffrey Goldberg, who had served as editor-in-chief ofThe Atlantic since 2016, had been named as the tenth moderator of thePBS news program,Washington Week, and that the politics and culture publication would also enter into an editorial partnership with the television program – which was retitled accordingly asWashington Week with The Atlantic – similar to the earlier collaboration with theNational Journal.[29][30][31] The first episode under the longer title, and with Goldberg as moderator, was the one broadcast on August 11, 2023.[32]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: Political views between 1860 and 1960. You can help byadding to it.(May 2025) |
In 1860, three years into publication,The Atlantic's then-editorJames Russell Lowell endorsedRepublicanAbraham Lincoln for his first run for president and also endorsed theabolition of slavery.[33]
In 1964, Edward Weeks wrote on behalf of the editorial board in endorsingDemocratic PresidentLyndon B. Johnson and rebuking RepublicanBarry Goldwater's candidacy.[34]
In 2016, during the2016 presidential campaign, the editorial board endorsed a candidate for the third time in the magazine's history, urging readers to support Democratic nomineeHillary Clinton in a rebuke of RepublicanDonald Trump's candidacy.[35]
After Trump prevailed in the November 2016 election, the magazine became a strong critic of his. In March 2019, a cover article by editorYoni Appelbaum called for theimpeachment of Donald Trump: "It's time for Congress to judge the president's fitness to serve."[36][37][38]
In September 2020, it published a story, citing several anonymous sources, reporting that Trump referred to dead American soldiers as "losers".[39] Trump called it a "fake story", and suggested the magazine would soon be out of business.[40][41]
In 2020,The Atlantic endorsed the Democratic presidential nomineeJoe Biden in the2020 presidential election, and urged its readers to oppose Trump's re-election bid.[42] In early 2024,The Atlantic published a special 24-article issue titled "If Trump Wins," warning about a potential second term for Trump being worse than his first.[43][44] In October, the publication endorsed Democratic nomineeKamala Harris in her presidential bid against Trump in the2024 election.[45]
The website is, as of 2025 a four tierfreemium model. All paid subscribers get access to unlimited articles including the archives and narrated articles and various other features. The base paid model is "Digital" subscriber, the higher tier "Print & Digital" includes physical copies of the magazine, and the "Premium" subscription includes advertisement free access ($120 per year).[46]
The Atlantic went on-line with AOL in 1993. They created an independent websiteThe Atlantic Monthly on the Web in 1995, becoming "Atlantic Unbound" in 1997.[47]
The Atlantic had a paywall, being only available to subscribers to the print edition, until January 2008, when they removed it, concomitant with a sponsorship fromGoldman Sachs.[48][49]
The website introduced "soft" limitations in October 2016, when free readers with adblockers were advised that they could turn off their adblocker, pay ($39.99 per year for advertising free access) or be blocked.[50][51] Closing the warning window, however would allow reading the article, the block wasn't actually "hard" implemented until 10 April 2017.[50]
A new paywall was expected to start trials in January 2018, but the project was delayed while platform improvements and staff recruitment were completed.[52][53] The relaunch of the paywall was finally announced in August 2019.[53]
In September 2019 the new paywall was imposed, "Digital" subscriptions were $49.99 per year, print and digital $59.99 and "Premium" $100.[52] Free users are no longer permitted five articles per month. They can only read the first two paragraphs or so and are then presented a link to subscribe.[52]
In 2005,The Atlantic and theAspen Institute launched theAspen Ideas Festival, a ten-day event in and around the city ofAspen, Colorado.[54] The annual conference features 350 presenters, 200 sessions, and 3,000 attendees. The event has been called a "politicalwho's who" as it often features policymakers, journalists, lobbyists, andthink tank leaders.[55]
On January 22, 2008, TheAtlantic.com dropped itssubscriber wall and allowed users to freely browse its site, including all past archives.[56] By 2011The Atlantic's web properties included TheAtlanticWire.com, a news- and opinion-tracking site launched in 2009,[57] and TheAtlanticCities.com, a stand-alone website started in 2011 that was devoted to global cities and trends.[58] According to aMashable profile in December 2011, "traffic to the three web properties recently surpassed 11 million uniques per month, up a staggering 2500% sinceThe Atlantic brought down its paywall in early 2008."[59]
In 2009, the magazine launchedThe Atlantic Wire as a stand-alonenews aggregator site. It was intended as a curated selection of news and opinions from online, print, radio, and television outlets.[60][61][62] At its launch, it publishedop-eds from across the media spectrum and summarized significant positions in each debate.[62] It later expanded to feature news and original reporting.
Regular features in the magazine included "What I Read", describing themedia diets of people from entertainment, journalism, and politics; and "Trimming the Times", the feature editor's summary of the best content inThe New York Times.[63]The Atlantic Wire rebranded itself asThe Wire in November 2013,[64] and was folded back intoThe Atlantic the following year.[65]
In August 2011, it created its video channel.[66] Initially created as an aggregator,The Atlantic's video component, Atlantic Studios, has since evolved in an in-house production studio that creates custom video series and original documentaries.[67]
In September 2011,The Atlantic launchedCityLab, a separate website. Its co-founders includedRichard Florida, urban theorist and professor. The stand-alone site has been described as exploring and explaining "the most innovative ideas and pressing issues facing today's global cities and neighborhoods."[68] In 2014, it was rebranded asCityLab.com, and covers transportation, environment, equity, life, and design. Among its offerings are Navigator, "a guide to urban life"; and Solutions, which covers solutions to problems in a dozen topics.[69]
In December 2011, a new Health Channel launched on TheAtlantic.com, incorporating coverage of food, as well as topics related to the mind, body, sex, family, and public health. Its launch was overseen by Nicholas Jackson, who had previously been overseeing the Life channel and initially joined the website to cover technology.[70] TheAtlantic.com has also expanded tovisual storytelling, with the addition of the "In Focus" photo blog, curated by Alan Taylor.[71]
In 2015, TheAtlantic.com launched a dedicated Science section[72] and in January 2016 it redesigned and expanded its politics section in conjunction with the 2016 U.S. presidential race.[73]
In 2015,CityLab andUnivision launchedCityLab Latino, which features original journalism in Spanish as well as translated reporting from the English language edition ofCityLab.com.[74] The site has not been updated since 2018.
In early December 2019, Atlantic Media soldCityLab toBloomberg Media,[75][76] which promptly laid off half the staff.[77] The site was relaunched on June 18, 2020, with few major changes other than new branding and linking the site with other Bloomberg verticals and its data terminal.[78]
In September 2019, TheAtlantic.com introduced a digital subscription model, restricting unsubscribed readers' access to five free articles per month.[79][80]
In June 2020,The Atlantic released its first full-length documentary,White Noise, a film about threealt-right activists.[81]
In June 2006, theChicago Tribune namedThe Atlantic one of the top ten English-language magazines, describing it as the "150-year-old granddaddy of periodicals" because "it keeps us smart and in the know" with cover stories on the then-forthcoming fight overRoe v. Wade. It also lauded regular features such as "Word Fugitives" and "Primary Sources" as "cultural barometers".[82]
On January 14, 2013,The Atlantic's website published "sponsor content" promotingDavid Miscavige, the leader of theChurch of Scientology. While the magazine had previously published advertising looking like articles, this was widely criticized. The page comments were moderated by the marketing team, not by editorial staff, and commentscritical of the church were being removed. Later that day,The Atlantic removed the piece from its website and issued an apology.[83][84][85]
In 2019, the magazine published an expose on the allegations against movie directorBryan Singer that "sent Singer's career into a tailspin". It was originally contracted toEsquire magazine, but the writers moved it there due to whatNew York Times reporterBen Smith described asHearst magazines' "timid" nature. "There's not a lot of nuance here",Jeffrey Goldberg said. "Theyspiked a story that should have been published in thepublic interest for reasons unknown."[86]
In June 2020,The Atlantic faced legal action in Japan that claimed defamation and invasion of privacy in the article "When the Presses Stop" byMolly Ball, published in the January/February 2018 edition, which led to numerous removals, corrections and clarifications after a settlement was reached in January 2024. The lawsuit highlightedfact-checking and ethical concerns, bringing attention to the magazine's editorial practices.[87][88][89]
On November 1, 2020,The Atlantic retracted an article, "The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports AmongIvy League–Obsessed Parents", after an inquiry byThe Washington Post. An 800-word editor's note said, "We cannot attest to the trustworthiness and credibility of the author, and therefore we cannot attest to the veracity of the article." The note alleged that the article's author, freelancerRuth Shalit Barrett, had left the staff ofThe New Republic in 1999 amid allegations ofplagiarism.[90][91] On January 7, 2022, Barrett sued the magazine for defamation. The lawsuit claimedThe Atlantic misrepresented Barrett's background and destroyed her journalistic career through what it publicly said about her.[92][93] In legal filings, Barrett argued thatThe Atlantic's handling of allegations and errors in another article written byMolly Ball demonstrated inconsistency in the magazine's editorial standards and accountability measures. Barrett asserted that the factual inaccuracies and ethical violations in Ball's piece, as highlighted by a separate defamation lawsuit that resulted in a settlement and numerous retractions and corrections to Ball's story, were "transgressions far more numerous and incomparably worse" than any mistakes attributed to her own work.[94][89] In June 2025, after mediation, Barrett andThe Atlantic reached a settlement and jointly moved to dismiss the case with prejudice. Court filings showed that on June 26 the magazine updated its online editor’s note to clarify that the pseudonymous source “Sloane” was anonymous, that Barrett says she elected to leaveThe New Republic, and that she did not ask the magazine to use a novel byline. The revision also changed a statement that she had encouraged “at least one source” to lie to “a source.” The following day, the parties filed their stipulation of dismissal in federal court. Although the settlement terms were not publicly disclosed in court,The New York Times reported thatThe Atlantic agreed to pay Barrett more than $1 million.TheWrap, citing theTimes, also reported the payment. The story remains retracted and, according to anAtlantic spokesperson, the editor’s note will not be updated further.[95][96]
On February 5, 2024,The Atlantic cut ties with contributorYascha Mounk after he was accused of rape. He called the allegation "categorically untrue."[97]
In 2025, national-security leaders in the Donald Trump administrationaccidentally includedThe Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a group chat where they organized and strategized upcoming military strikes on theHouthis.[98]
By its third year, it was published byBoston publishing houseTicknor and Fields, which later became part ofHoughton Mifflin,[citation needed] based in the city known for literary culture. The magazine was purchased in 1908 by editor at the time,Ellery Sedgwick, and remained in Boston.
In 1980, the magazine was acquired byMortimer Zuckerman, property magnate and founder ofBoston Properties, who became its chairman. On September 27, 1999, Zuckerman transferred ownership of the magazine toDavid G. Bradley, owner of theNational Journal Group, which focused onWashington, D.C. andfederal government news. Bradley had promised that the magazine would stay in Boston for the foreseeable future, as it did for the next five-and-a-half years.
In April 2005, however, the publishers announced that the editorial offices would be moved from their longtime home at 77 North Washington Street in Boston to join the company's advertising and circulation divisions in Washington, D.C.[99] Later in August, Bradley toldThe New York Observer that the move was not made to save money—near-term savings would be $200,000–$300,000, a relatively small amount that would be swallowed by severance-related spending—but instead would serve to create a hub in Washington, D.C., where the top minds from all of Bradley's publications could collaborate under theAtlantic Media Company umbrella. Few of the Boston staff agreed to move, and Bradley then commenced an open search for a new editorial staff.[100]
In 2006, Bradley hiredJames Bennet, theJerusalem bureau chief forThe New York Times, as editor-in-chief. Bradley also hired Jeffrey Goldberg andAndrew Sullivan as writers for the magazine.[101]
In 2008, Jay Lauf joined the organization as publisher and vice-president; as of 2017, he was publisher and president ofQuartz.[102]
In early 2014, Bennet and Bob Cohn became co-presidents ofThe Atlantic, and Cohn became the publication's sole president in March 2016 when Bennet was tapped to leadThe New York Times's editorial page.[103][104] Jeffrey Goldberg was named editor-in-chief in October 2016.[105]
On July 28, 2017,The Atlantic announced thatLaurene Powell Jobs (the widow of formerApple Inc. chairman and CEOSteve Jobs) had acquired majority ownership through herEmerson Collective organization, with a staff member of Emerson Collective, Peter Lattman, being immediately named as vice chairman ofThe Atlantic. David G. Bradley and Atlantic Media retained a minority share position in this sale.[106]
In May 2019, technology journalist Adrienne LaFrance became executive editor.[107]
In December 2020, formerWired editor-in-chiefNicholas Thompson was named CEO ofThe Atlantic.[108]
In 2022,The Atlantic moved its offices toThe Wharf in Washington, D.C.'sSouthwest Waterfront neighborhood.
The Atlantic Monthly was founded in Boston in 1857 by Francis Underwood (an assistant to the publisher...
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