Emerson Collective, the philanthropic organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, announced on Friday that it has agreed to buy a majority stake in The Atlantic, the storied magazine of news and letters that has chronicled current affairs for more than a century.
The specific terms of the deal, which will close in about a month, were not disclosed. Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire widow of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, will jointly own the magazine with Atlantic Media chairman David Bradley with an option to buy him out over the next few years.
For Bradley, 64, the deal was an opportunity to see that the magazine had a responsible steward in the coming years, he said in a memo to Atlantic Media staffers Friday morning.
“I don’t think you will see any material changes in your lives; we all continue in our same roles,” Bradley wrote. “But, now 64 years old, I find my gaze casting farther forward. Laurene and I have settled on a plan that, as I approach 70, Emerson Collective will take full ownership of The Atlantic and she serve in my stead as leader of the enterprise.”
The deal does not include Bradley’s stake in other properties of Atlantic Media — Quartz, Government Executive Media Group and National Journal Group, according to Bradley’s note. And day-to-day operations of both The Atlantic and other Atlantic Media properties are not slated to change in the short-term as a result of the deal.
Under the terms of the deal, Peter Lattman, the managing editor of Emerson Collective and the former media editor of The New York Times, will become vice chairman of The Atlantic, taking an office in New York. The leadership structure of the company will not otherwise change, according to the announcement.
The search for a new owner of The Atlantic began about a year ago, after Bradley realized none of his sons were interested in the media business.
“A year ago, I tasked a small group of researchers with identifying a list of individuals who might succeed me as the 6th owner of The Atlantic,” Bradley said. “That the list soon topped 600 names raised the question from me to our researchers: ‘Is there anyone you think not qualified to own The Atlantic?’ But, by anyone’s measure, the top 50 names were remarkable. And, for me, from the first, Laurene Powell Jobs sat atop the list.”
The Atlantic has been on a run in recent years. The magazine now counts 80 percent of its revenue from non-print sources — advertising, live events and a consulting business. It has added marquee staffers in recent months and has grown its audience prodigiously, according to a story published this week by The Washington Post.
Bradley concluded his note to staffers by noting that Jobs’ ambition “is greater than my own.”
“So, let’s make it our work to prove the wisdom of our era wrong,” he wrote. “And, when my time comes to leave, that would be a happy note on which to say ‘good-bye.'”
My Atlantic Colleagues:
This is not my everyday memo to you. Definitionally, it is a message I can write only once. And, in the event, it is to the good.
I want to let you know that I am entering into a partnership with Emerson Collective, the business and philanthropic venture of Laurene Powell Jobs. For a time, Emerson Collective and I will own jointly, and then Emerson Collective alone, The Atlantic – magazine, websites and affiliated businesses. I don’t think you will see any material changes in your lives; we all continue in our same roles. But, now 64 years old, I find my gaze casting farther forward. Laurene and I have settled on a plan that, as I approach 70, Emerson Collective will take full ownership of The Atlantic and she serve in my stead as leader of the enterprise.
Against the odds, The Atlantic is prospering. While I will stay at the helm some years, the most consequential decision of my career now is behind me: Who next will take stewardship of this 160-year-old national treasure? To me, the answer, in the form of Laurene, feels incomparably right.
My Thinking in Brief
The Atlantic’s long-term future has been on my mind for the last two years. As Katherine’s and my three sons reached majority, we came to understand that we did not have a next generation interested in media. Katherine and I would need to look farther afield.
I don’t suppose it would be a Bradley search if I didn’t burden it with process. A year ago, I tasked a small group of researchers with identifying a list of individuals who might succeed me as the 6th owner of The Atlantic. That the list soon topped 600 names raised the question from me to our researchers: “Is there anyone you think not qualified to own The Atlantic?” But, by anyone’s measure, the top 50 names were remarkable. And, for me, from the first, Laurene Powell Jobs sat atop the list.
It was a friend of many of us here, Leon Wieseltier, who first put me onto the possibility that Laurene might come to love The Atlantic as I have. For its part, Emerson Collective had begun to invest in serious journalism for its own sake. And, as to Laurene personally, Leon said, “If she were to take an interest in The Atlantic, it would be for all the right reasons.” In a January meeting in Washington, Laurene first took an interest.
Sharing Some of the Detail
Writing alone here, at night, I’m struck by how little I know about business partnerships; this will be the first owner partnership in my 40-year career. I wonder the appropriate detail to share with you. But, here is some to begin.
In roughly a month’s time, Emerson Collective will purchase a majority interest in The Atlantic. I will retain a large share of the property; likely, but not certainly, Emerson Collective will purchase my remaining interest three to five years from now.
How might management change? I don’t think at all. I will continue in my current role with my current responsibilities for three to five years. In fact, my agreement with Emerson Collective contemplates the possibility that I may remain in some capacity for some longer time. (When I purchased The Atlantic in 1999, our poetry editor was 93 years old. I’ve some mind to take her role in the event she retires.)
As to our remaining rank of leaders and managers, the agreement contemplates no change. My 8th floor colleagues – Michael Finnegan, Aretae Wyler and Emily Lenzner, the senior Atlantic leadership under Bob Cohn – Jeffrey Goldberg, Hayley Romer, Kim Lau, Margaret Low, Jean Ellen Cowgill, Rob Bole – and all their direct reports – all continue to serve just as they do now. Michael will report to me, Bob to Michael, and so forth down the line. And, as to the only note of disappointment, Atlantic headquarters continues here in the Watergate, and not in Palo Alto.
(Lest 600 of my other colleagues simply wander away, I should make clear that I – alone – will continue to own the other Atlantic Media properties – National Journal Group, Government Executive Media Group and Quartz. We will continue tomorrow exactly as we do today.)
One final note as to leaders: the day-to-day work of bringing us to an agreement was led by an Emerson Collective executive appointed by Laurene to lead her inquiry into media. Some of us knew Peter Lattman when he was the media editor and then deputy business editor at the New York Times. Though Peter will continue in his role of media strategist for Emerson Collective, he also will serve as Atlantic vice chairman, taking an office with us in New York.
In our last conversation of any note, Laurene and I thought through timing for her to meet you, and vice versa. Our best guess is that Laurene will visit both our Washington and New York offices in September. We have discussed smaller meetings with the leadership and all-staff events thereafter.
A Closing Thought on Ambition
Against expectation, surely against my own, The Atlantic is completing its most-successful decade in 100 years. In relevance, readership and even commerce, it is as if The Atlantic had entered, to take from Churchill, “the broad, sunlit uplands” of publishing. That it could happen now … well, you know the odds.
So, for some time, the strategy question nagging my thought is this: “What could we do in the next ten years worthy of the ten years just gone by?” I assume a Wall Street analyst would tell us, “Not a thing. There is no ‘broad, sunlit uplands’ for serious journalism.”
What I loved about Laurene from the first is that her confidence was forged on a different coast. And, if anything, her ambition is greater than my own. So, let’s make it our work to prove the wisdom of our era wrong. And, when my time comes to leave, that would be a happy note on which to say “good-bye.”
