The Atlantic Lays Off 68 Staffers Companywide Due to Economic Fallout From Covid-19

The publisher, which has seen a recent notable uptick in subscribers during the Covid-19 pandemic, couldn’t rely on that as enough of a revenue source to make up for financial losses from its in-person events business and loss of advertisers.

Since March, The Atlantic attracted more than 90,000 new subscribers. Amid the pandemic, that figure was seen as a hopeful sign, especially for a media organization that had only launched its paywall in September. In all, the publisher attracted 160,000 new subscribers since the paywall’s creation.

“The particular timing is clear – a global pandemic that has shuttered the economy generally, advertising acutely, and in-person events altogether,” David Bradley, chairman and owner of Atlantic Media, told staffers in an email explaining the reasoning behind the decision on Thursday morning.

The Atlantic established a newsroom-wide effort into covering the pandemic, including creating the Covid-19 Tracking Project, which is data-led analyses of the coronavirus. The coverage prompted an uptick in traffic.

Like other publishers, The Atlantic also began producing virtual events as Covid-19 began to take hold in the U.S. But the financial effects were too deep to avoid making cuts, similar to what the industry saw last week alone with layoffs at Quartz, Vice, The Economist Group and Condé Nast.

The Atlantic will offer a minimum 16 weeks salary to all employees, plus two weeks for each year of service beyond the first year as part of its adjusted severance package, which is more than what’s been previously offered under the standing policy to offer more “support during this singularly-difficult year,” Bradley said in the memo. The Atlantic will also cover employee healthcare through the end of the year and provide job search support for three months.

To prevent further reductions, The Atlantic is also implementing a temporary salary freeze and pay cuts among executives. Already, the publisher attempted to hold on to cash through a hiring freeze, a pause in fellowships and it deferred annual bonuses.

The media outlet will focus on subscriber growth and focus on its b-to-b lines of revenue to increase the influence of products and services from its Atlantic 57, Atlantic Re:think and AtlanticLIVE brands. The publisher still hopes to reach 1 million subscribers by December 2022.

“For 163 years, The Atlantic has been in the pursuit of truth,” Bradley said in the memo. “Through a sine curve of ups and downs, we’ve grown four-fold in staffing, 20-fold in readership, so far this century. This story marches on.”

Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective bought a majority stake in The Atlantic in 2017. The next year, the publisher committed to hiring for 100 new positions—50 in editorial, 50 in business—across the company. The initial plan, which has since been put on hold, was for Bradley to stay for five years and then retire and cede control to Powell Jobs.

Bradley recently sold other parts of Atlantic Media: Japanese firm Uzabase acquired Quartz in 2018; in March, Government Executive Media Group, which publishes Route Fifty and Defense One, was sold to Chicago-based PE firm Growth Catalyst Partners; and CityLab, which billed itself as the “urban-focused” site of The Atlantic, was sold to Bloomberg.

Atlantic Media still owns National Journal, which has put a recent emphasis on b-to-b consulting.