• by Sara Guaglione , March 9, 2016

Texture, a digital magazine app, is partnering with The Atavist Magazine to sponsor a new weekly series called "The Mastermind," led by Atavist editor in chief Evan Ratliff.

Starting this week, Texture users will get an exclusive first look at Atavist's seven-part weekly serial on Paul Calder Le Roux, “an international crime kingpin turned government informant,” according to a statement. Le Roux was a computer programmer who built an Internet-enabled global cartel specializing in cocaine, diamond, gold and gun-running schemes.

After a six-year probe by D.E.A. agents in Minneapolis, Le Roux was arrested in Liberia in 2012 and made a court appearance last week in Minneapolis.

A new chapter of the Le Roux chronicle will be published in the Texture app each Monday, before appearing on the digital-only Atavist Magazine every Thursday.

Atavist will feature sponsorship branding from Texture on all episodes of the story on the Web site.

“Texture subscribers double and triple their reading time after getting the app. Being able to deliver this kind of voracious reader a story of such consequence is thrilling,” Maggie Murphy,  editorial director of Texture, told Publishers Daily via email.

Texture is the the sole launch sponsor of the series.

John Kerner, Texture's vice president of content strategy, stated that this is the beginning of the company’s “road to building an original content model for Texture.”

Ratliff has been reporting this story for more than two years.

"I have been all over the world tracking the characters in ‘The Mastermind,’” stated Ratliff. “With Le Roux's appearance in court last week, we're finally ready to share a tale about the new face of global crime. He adds that Texture's sponsorship brings the story to an audience "deeply attuned to long-form narratives."