Word Count: 2,058 December 11, 2017 “Every nation condemns conquest, and every nation with power to enter upon a career of conquest rushes eagerly upon it.’ ‘We are told, that, in selling yourself to the Devil, it is the proper traditionary practice to write the contract in your blood. Douglas, in binding himself against him, did the same thing.’ ‘‘Dear me!’ interrupted Sally, “a real war coming! and I a’n’t any thing but a woman!’’ ‘All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called facts. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.’” These are the words of “an original American magazine of the highest literary order at the same price of the magazines which are in part composed of matter borrowed from foreign sources,” according to the New York Times’ review of the first printed edition of The Atlantic Monthly - now called simply, The Atlantic - released in November of 1857. Each excerpt is from a story or article published in the edition. Now 160 years old as of November 2017, The Atlantic has maintained its place as a national influence. The Atlantic, The Captain & Crew The magazine welcomed a new Editor in Chief in October of 2016, Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg is the publication’s fourteenth top editor in its 160 years and replaces James Bennet, who left The Atlantic for The New York Times in the spring of 2016. Goldberg reports to the company’s President, Bob Cohn. Goldberg published a story introducing The Masthead, a membership program and took the time to define his goals. “I have several main goals as The Atlantic’s editor in chief,” said Goldberg in the article. “The first, and of course most urgent, is to argue for the importance of fact-driven journalism at a time when the president of the United States has declared the press to be the enemy of the American people. My next three goals are related to the first: to make sure we publish journalism that honors our history; to guarantee, by extension, that we provide you, our readers, with journalism that helps you become more informed; and finally, to ensure that The Atlantic, which celebrates its 160th birthday this November, will reach its bicentennial year as a thriving, self-sustaining business with global reach and clear purpose.” Due to the publication’s multi-platform approach, it has an extensive staff list called the Masthead (not to be confused with the previously mentioned membership program by the same name). Chairman David G. Bradley, Cohn, and Goldberg are among the first on the list. They are followed by an extensive list of editors, correspondents, staff writers, and the heads of various background departments that include publishing, data and growth, and advertising. The Atlantic, The Decks Today, The Atlantic not only releases ten print issues a year but also maintains a website in addition to incorporating podcasts, live events, and videos in their multi-platform model. The Atlantic and TheAtlantic.com, the print publication and the website, tie in closely with each other. Nearly all of the issues published in print since 1857 can be found in the website’s archives. The website is updated daily with the works of writers on topics including politics, business, science, and national and international issues. The publication also features creative literary elements which includes fiction and poetry. Radio Atlantic carries the tagline “Weekly conversations with leading journalists and thinkers to make sense of the history happening all around us.” A new podcast is posted weekly with a single episode spanning anywhere from roughly 40 minutes to as much as an hour and a half. The exception would be Episode 9, “News Update: Questions After Harvey” which was posted in between the regularly scheduled episodes, and lasted about fifteen minutes. Each episode is accompanied by a summary of what the episode will entail, as well as a list of at least five relevant links. This fall, the magazine also has began a special membership program called “The Masthead” (referenced in ‘The Atlantic, People at the Helm’). The Masthead is a way for readers to connect with editors at the publication, discuss what is happening in the world, read exclusive members-only coverage; members of this group also get the opportunity to participate in weekly conference calls where the editors of The Masthead sit down with an Atlantic writer or a notable figure and answer members’ questions live. Members can access a ‘Conference Call Archive’ which contains conversations with people such as author John Green, Stranger Things’ Lenika Cruz, and the Atlantic’s Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. The publication also has a sub-site called CityLab. According to a press release from The Atlantic CityLab, “which debuted six years ago as a cities-focused spin-off of The Atlantic. In that time, the site has successfully carved a niche as the leading destination for those who lead, live, and work in modern cities. Cities of all sizes are emerging as hotbeds of local action and global innovation, with more people gravitating to urban areas than ever before.” In 2017, CityLab was in Paris. 36 mayors from cities worldwide attended the event, including Paris’ Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Tokyo’s Governor Yuriko Koike, Riga’s Mayor Nils Ušakovs, and Nashville’s Megan Barry. In 2018 it is scheduled to be held in Detroit. The Wire was brought back into The Atlantic in 2014 after an extended period of time of complicated politics. In a short article published in October of 2014, J.J. Gould reported to readers that “The editorial staff from The Wire has joined up with The Atlantic. We're very happy about this, because it brings The Atlantic a dedicated news team with all the energy and focus of The Wire, as well as an enhanced culture team, and gives everyone around here the opportunity to work together more closely.” The Atlantic, Below Deck The company as a whole comes across slightly left leaning to the public, although they remain objective and their reports are well-researched and factual. The most drastic change comes from their cover art: it went from simple and classic in 1857 to colorful and bold. The November 1994 issue of the magazine provided an article titled “The Atlantic: A History” which was pulled from a presentation given by the magazine’s managing editor. It detailed the founding moments of the publication: a meeting in Boston’s Parker House Hotel between “Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and several other gentlemen with three names and impeccable Brahmin breeding...As one of the participants wrote to a friend the next day, ‘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 that I have ever had.’ Soon the new magazine acquired an editor, James Russell Lowell, and a name--The Atlantic Monthly.” The publication, as spoken of in the presentation, strives to adhere to the standards put forth by these founders in the magazine’s Declaration of Purpose, found in its first printed edition. "In politics, The Atlantic Monthly will be the organ of no party or clique, but will honestly endeavor to be the exponent of what it’s conductors believe to be the American idea. It will deal frankly with persons and with parties, endeavoring always to keep in view that moral element which transcends all persons and parties, and which alone makes the basis of a true and lasting prosperity. It will not rank itself with any sect of anties: but with that body of men which is in favor of Freedom, National Progress, and Honor, whether public or private." The Atlantic has been the starting ground in the world of literature: they saw the first stories into print of Mark Twain, Henry James, Louise Erdrich, Sue Miller, and Bobbie Ann Mason. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe also first appeared in this magazine’s pages and it was where James Dickey went when he wanted to publish his work Deliverance. The company has first drafts from those such as Robert Frost and Rabindranath Tagore hanging on their wall. The publication also distinguished itself in the world of politics over time. It published the essays of Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, W.E.B. DuBois. Martin Luther King sent The Atlantic a handwritten draft of a letter in 1963 that would become known as his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. The publication was also used by Al Smith to explain the competence of a Catholic to run for national office. It was also where the interviews between William Greider and David Stockman were published, which caused President Reagan to take action. The Atlantic, according to this presentation strives to “combine the qualities of general-interest magazines, of political magazines, of intellectual magazines, and of literary magazines.” The Atlantic, The Sails The magazine has stayed focused in terms of the areas it covers and has not seen a huge change in its overall views in its 160 years. Here are story summaries of a few past stories from their print issues. The first edition, published in November 1857, of The Atlantic Monthly’s content was split half and half between fiction (poetry, short stories, etc.) and writing under business, politics, and ‘general-interest’. The first nonfiction piece is called “The Financial Flurry” and was published without an author’s name. Like many of the early articles it is heavy with descriptive and high-level language. The accompanying blurb under the headline gives an idea of this: “The bowels of the banks, with us the great money-lenders, close with the snap and tenacity of steel-traps; and then a general panic, or want of commercial confidence, brings on a paralysis of the domestic exchanges, and wide-spread bankruptcy and ruin. Importations are checked, of course; but they are checked in a sharp, rapid, and violent way, accompanied by the most painful embarrassments and convulsions.’ The article, after a thick descriptive passage, discusses the idea of precious metals and the ‘gold standard’ when it comes to money and debates the idea of paper money. In April of 1864, The Atlantic Monthly published an in depth story by Fitz-Hugh Ludlow after he spent three months living with Mormons in Salt Lake City, UT. This article was also heavy in description - it spends paragraphs describing the mountains and the area they lived before talking about the people and culture. He meets Brigham Young and describes what happens when you decide to become Mormon in terms of your money, he discusses polygamy, and goes in-depth on other topics in their society. The writing style holds extremely similar to the style found in the first article. In October of 1950 an article by Naboth Hedin was published on the fiftieth anniversary of the Nobel Prize. It discusses the origin of the prize, how nominations work, and the intention of the award as stated in the will of Alfred Nobel. He touches on past winners of the prize. Hedin also goes in-depth into the history of Noble himself. The style is much less descriptive in terms of nature and scenery and reads closer to a feature or soft news story. Nevertheless, the tone is still consistent with the past issues of the magazine. To give a sample: “To this enormously wealthy bachelor, late in life, came the idea of awarding young men of genius the money to carry on their lifework unhampered by poverty. What better way to distribute his fortune, which now grossed thirty-three million Swedish crowns?” In the January/February 2017 issue of The Atlantic published a business article titled “The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything” by Derek Thompson. The article gave a nod towards its extremely descriptive ancestors, but does so only slightly. The writing is much clearer and concise, but still matches the same tone and overall style as the early editions. The lead, like all of the stories mentioned is lengthy - this one focuses on Raymond Loewy before widening to talk about the topic of the article itself: “Why do people like what they like? It is one of the oldest questions of philosophy and aesthetics.” The Atlantic has seen a consistency in readership to have the ability to retain its style, tone, and editorial lean across its time of production. Of all the products people like, for whatever reason, for 160 years Americans have favored this one in particular.
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