"Atlantic" To Get More Political In '08

Two years after chairman David Bradley, facing mounting costs, moved the 148-year-old Atlantic Monthly from Boston to D.C., the magazine is ramping up its political content, events--and staff--in advance of the 2008 presidential election.

In December, the magazine--celebrating its 150th anniversary next month--will publish the first cover story written by Andrew Sullivan, the popular conservative blogger whom the Atlantic lured away from Time magazine earlier this year. Sullivan's cover subject? Barack Obama.

In January, the magazine will publish a "State of the Union" cover package that looks at America "after Iraq" and homeward at the issues that have been overshadowed by the war. "It's, 'What is America ignoring at home?'" says publisher Elizabeth Baker Keffer.

To facilitate the push, the Atlantic hired Ronald Brownstein, national affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times, to be its political director, a newly-created position. (Brownstein is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential campaigns.)

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