• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 11, 2010

The Atlantic is one of the most storied names in magazine publishing, dating back to 1857 and boasting contributors over the years from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain to Martin Luther King Jr. More recently, the magazine two years ago relaunched its Web site in connection with an overhaul of the print edition. It also removed the subscriber wall to theAtlantic.com and opened up access to its online archive.

With The Atlanticrelaunching its site again last month, Online Media Daily asked M. Scott Havens, the company's vice president, digital strategy and operations, and Jay Lauf, vice president and publisher, about the new Web presence and what it means for advertisers in particular. They also weighed in on the industry's broader digital shift, including the potential for tablet devices as magazine e-readers.

Prior to joining The Atlantic in 2009, Havens was executive director, Condé Nast Business Media, and a founder of Portfolio.com. Lauf joined the magazine from Wired in 2008, where he served progressively from 2001 as advertising director, associate publisher and publisher.

OMD: The Atlantic last revamped its site two years ago as part of the overall redesign of the magazine. What prompted the latest redesign?

Havens: We did, but the business and the site have changed quite a bit since then, and we needed to update our platform to keep up with our rapid pace. A few key goals of the redesign included creating a better method to showcase all our great daily content that was getting lost on the site and to improve "depth" of user visits; allowing editorial to promote different types of content together (magazine vs. blog vs. video) on all pages, channels; and supporting commenting throughout the site on all content types.

OMD: It looks like one of the main changes has been to organize content more clearly by category: business, politics, culture, food, etc. Besides helping readers navigate the site more easily, does that also help advertisers better target your audience by channel?

Lauf: It does -- advertisers crave contextual relevancy, and this helps provide it for the ones to whom that is most important.

OMD: Does the redesign include any new ad units or opportunities?

Havens: Yes, we're now supporting additional rich media units including peel backs, site skins, footer units, new and improved interstitials, push downs, etc. We also launched two iPhone apps at the end of 2009 to support mobile advertising needs and we have another in the pipeline.

OMD: How would you describe the typical Atlantic.com user, and does he or she differ significantly in any way from the print subscribers?

Lauf: Both the site and the magazine attract a very high concentration of influentials -- individuals who are highly educated, in decision-making positions in their organizations and therefore quite affluent. The online audience is slightly younger and more male. In both cases, they're deeply engaged by ideas that challenge them and are quite active politically.

OMD: What types of advertisers does TheAltantic.com attract?

Lauf: Premium brands make up theAtlantic.com's roster of advertisers. Corporate and business advertisers like Shell, Pfizer, Siemens, IBM, and SAP, as well as premium consumer brands like Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, Luis Vuitton and the like. We are also seeing a lot of international travel advertising from the likes of Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas.

OMD: Debate has heated up in recent months about whether newspapers and magazines can be successful charging for online content. Do you foresee any paid model for theAtlantic.com?

Havens: Possibly yes. We're open to testing new ways to monetize our content via the site and other digital platforms, as well as looking at how to provide compelling multi-platform products to our users. One thing we are confident about is that our content is incredibly valuable to a large influential audience, and we need to make sure that we treat it that way.

OMD: The inevitable iPad question: Do you see promise in tablet devices like the forthcoming iPad or e-book readers as ways to expand readership and boost the magazine's economics in the coming years?

Havens: Yes, we definitely do, but how big the market it is and how long it takes to develop is still unclear. Right now, our aggressive strategy is to be platform-agnostic by working with top devices/stores to allow our users to consume the Atlantic via any medium or device they choose: print, online, mobile or e-reader. There are still key outstanding issues with certain providers around who owns the customer, who sets the end user pricing, as well as the revenue splits and advertising formats supported. At the same time, our print business (circ and advertising) continues to be very strong, so we're continuing to support and grow that business.

OMD: Is there anything about theAtlantic.com you think would surprise digital media buyers?

Havens: I think the fact that we have almost 4 million readers doing 20 million page views a month would surprise some buyers. [TheAtlantic.com had 2 million U.S. monthly visitors in February, according to comScore.] I also think our 12 minutes per visitor session is probably higher than most in our competitive set. We also experienced 257% digital revenue growth in 2009 in a tough year for media.