David Bradley, 64-year-old CEO and owner of Atlantic Media, is selling a majority stake in The Atlantic to the Emerson Collective, the philanthropic arm of Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple's Steve Jobs.
 |
He will retain a minority stake in the magazine and continue as chairman and operating partner for three to five years. It's anticipated that Emerson will take full ownership in five years.
In a memo to staffers, Bradley wrote that he's been thinking of the future of the Atlantic for the past 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," he wrote.
He assembled a team of researchers to identify new ownership of the 160-year-old magazine. The list topped 600 names.
|
|
David Bradley & Laurene Powell JobsPowell Jobs was the only person approached because her selection felt "incomparably right,” noted Bradley.
Powell Jobs, 53, launched Emerson in 2004 to invest in both nonprofit and entrepreneurial groups that back immigration and education reform. Emerson also has investments in media such as Anonymous Content (movie production) and The California Sunday Magazine.
Emerson also has supported non-profit journalism outlets such Marshall Project and ProPublica.
In a statement, Powell Jobs praised The Atlantic for its role to “bring about equality for all people; to illuminate and defend the American idea; to celebrate American culture and literature; and to cover our marvelous, and sometimes messy, democratic experiment.”
Emerson's Peter Lattman, former deputy business editor at the New York Times, will serve as vice chairman of the Atlantic.
Powell Jobs is expected to visit the Atlantic offices in New York and Washington in September.
Bradley purchased The Atlantic for $10M from real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman.
He continues as owner of AMproperties - National Journal Group, Government Executive Media Group and Quartz.
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute, as ombudsman for CBS News.
