Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ widow, makes splashy media deal – New York Post

Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, is getting into the magazine business.

David Bradley, owner of the Atlantic, said he is selling majority control of the 160-year-old publication to Emerson Collective, a not-for-profit institute that is controlled by Powell Jobs.

The deal involves only the Atlantic magazine, founded four years before the start of the Civil War. The other properties that are part of Atlantic Media including conferences and the National Journal, Quartz, and Government Executive will be retained by Bradleys company.

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, Bradley wrote in a memo to staffers Friday.

Bradley is 64 and said that none of his three children had expressed interest in taking over the magazine. The plan calls for Powell Jobs and the Emerson Collective to eventually acquire full control. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bradley took over the then-Boston-based publication from real estate developer and Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman for $10 million in 1999. It lost money every year Zuckerman owned it and was losing money for many years before that.

Bradley moved it to Washington, DC, and made a big push into digital offerings. The magazine reversed years of financial misery and started posting a profit about three years ago. Today, the magazine and its related properties derive only about 20 percent of its total revenue from print.

Against the odds, The Atlantic is prospering, Bradley said in the memo. 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.

Bradley said he will stay on as chairman of the Atlantic magazine for three to five years.

Peter Lattman, a former media editor at the New York Times and now managing director at Palo Alto-based Emerson Collective, will be adding the title of vice chairman of Atlantic and will operate out of its New York offices, where the publication has sales and video production.

The editorial office is expected to remain in Washington and Jeffrey Goldberg and Bob Cohn are expected to remain as editor-in-chief and president, respectively, under new ownership.

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Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow, makes splashy media deal - New York Post

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