Biz: Well that’s cool: The Atlantic (on top of being great) is profitable
- We imagined ourselves as a venture-capital-backed start-up in Silicon Valley whose mission was to attack and disrupt The Atlantic. In essence, we brainstormed the question, ‘What would we do if the goal was to aggressively cannibalize ourselves?’
- Atlantic Media Company president Justin B. Smith • Revealing the secret that The Atlantic has used to become profitable this year after years in the red. Much of what they’ve done has not been to focus on the magazine, but to find ways to reinvent itself on the Web. The hiring of Andrew Sullivan from Time.com was a very good starting point; from there, they’ve created really cool things to go along with that. (The Atlantic Wire – apparently a big success for the company –occasionally links to us, which is neat.) It’s cool to see a magazine like The Atlantic – long seen as the smartest kid on the block – reinvent itself for the Web. So, hey, Atlantic, since you’re thinking reinvention, whaddya think of a site that presents news in number-and-quote-and-blurb form? We hear it’s a growth market or something like that. (thanks futurejournalismproject) source