Atlantic To Stop Publishing The Wire

The Wire will no longer exist as its own website and will be integrated back into The Atlantic, company presidents James Bennet and Bob Cohn told staffers in a memo Monday.

The memo attributes the move to the fact that the "business strategy behind separating The Wire from The Atlantic simply hasn’t proven out." By bringing it back into The Atlantic's fold, Bennet and Cohn said that they hope to combine forces and rebuild a "very powerful" new version of TheAtlantic.com.

"We are very proud of what The Wire has accomplished editorially, and we think that joining its aggressive, deft news coverage with The Atlantic’s ideas-driven journalism will provide a richer experience for The Atlantic’s readers, a firmer foundation for our ambitions to cover the news, and greater opportunities for growth for The Wire’s team," Bennet and Cohn wrote.

The presidents suggested that the switch will not result in staff layoffs, writing that The Wire team will continue to work in New York. The Wire's editor Dashiell Bennett will now oversee The Atlantic news team with Emily Epstein.

The Atlantic underwent a major rebranding in 2008 in an effort to catch up with the fast-paced digital world. The Atlantic Wire debuted in 2009. According to a Guardian analysis of The Atlantic's branding strategy, the new site was "aimed at a younger generation mostly relying on social media." (In 2013, the company announced that it would change the website's name from "The Atlantic Wire" to just "The Wire.") It was followed by the launch of Atlantic Cities (now CityLab) in 2011, and its business news website, Quartz, in 2012.

The Atlantic said that this latest digital-based change will only benefit readers, bringing all the top news stories into one place.

(h/t: Poynter)