The Atlantic is doubling down on dwell journalism.
This week marks the primary time the writer has held its flagship occasion, The Atlantic Competition, in New York. The 167-year-old journal is on tempo to ship its largest income haul since rebranding the flagship occasion in 2017, in keeping with writer Alice McKown.
Yr-over-year pageant income grew 36% in comparison with 2024, with almost 2,000 in-person attendees and greater than 10,000 digital tickets claimed, though the writer declined to offer monetary specifics. Single day passes price $475, two-day passes are $800, and digital attendance is free.
Occasions now comprise 25% of The Atlantic’s business income, with 60% of that coming from the Atlantic Competition. The occasion has turn out to be a central pillar of the corporate’s progress technique heading into 2026 and 2027, in keeping with McKown.
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The expansion displays the broader media trade’s embrace of dwell occasions, which have turn out to be one of many few sturdy shiny spots amid wider trade contractions.
“Stay occasions are so necessary to branding,” McKown stated. “Having an in-person expertise within the largest metropolis in America is essential for our model.”
Shifting the pageant to New York
This 12 months marks the primary time the Competition can be held in New York Metropolis, a shift designed to faucet into the town’s density of subscribers, sponsors, and media affect, McKown stated. It was beforehand held in Washington D.C.
In occasions occurring in venues throughout the town, greater than 50 Atlantic journalists will seem on stage, throughout periods spanning politics, tradition, well being, and expertise, lots of which function celebrities.
Some periods throughout the three-day pageant are explicitly sponsored, equivalent to Tastes of Tomorrow: What’s Subsequent in Meals and Beverage, produced by Diageo. Others are completely unbiased, equivalent to a panel on girls’s sports activities that includes a mixture of Atlantic writers like Jemele Hill and luminaries within the house like Clara Wu Tsai.
“New York provides entry to an even bigger viewers,” stated Justin Eisenband, managing director at FTI Consulting. “Whereas seemingly barely costlier, it could possibly entice extra attendees, particularly present and potential subscribers, in addition to sponsorship {dollars}.”
The Atlantic Competition additionally strikes an uncommon center floor in its construction. It nominally attracts a normal curiosity viewers, precluding it from the business advantages of a business-to-business occasion.
However its greater worth level and model status additionally maintain the variety of potential attendees smaller than many customary consumer-targeted occasions, which frequently make up for his or her lack of focused viewers with scale. A lot of its programming additionally happens throughout workdays, on Thursday and Friday.
Nonetheless, the focus of prosperous subscribers The Atlantic has in New York—together with the reasonably priced choices made out there by means of its Out and About night occasions—have enabled it to get pleasure from the very best of each methods.
In keeping with McKown, 29% of general in-person attendees have been C-suite executives, with administrators and vice presidents pushing the share of director-level or greater individuals to 56%. For premium go holders, that determine rose to 74%.
“Near 30% of our ticket consumers are C-suite,” McKown stated. “Individuals are saying, ‘This morning session is crucial to my work’—that’s a whole lot of our attendee base.”
Whereas tickets present one income stream, underwriting stays the most important financial driver.
The gross sales workforce at The Atlantic pitches the occasion as an enticement to safe bigger offers, providing advertisers one other contact level to achieve Atlantic audiences. In consequence, eight of The Atlantic’s prime 10 promoting companions are shopping for into occasions, in keeping with McKown.
That positioning has helped push general business income almost 30% greater over the previous two years, though the corporate declined to supply monetary specifics or touch upon its profitability. In 2024, the writer introduced it had turned a revenue for the primary time in years, but it surely has been investing closely in its editorial operation this 12 months, hiring dozens of high-profile writers.
“Yearly, publishers must work a little bit more durable to draw direct advertisers,” stated eMarketer senior analyst Max Willens. “The Atlantic is sensible to focus its gross sales efforts on a high-profile occasion like their pageant, as a result of occasions stay a extremely differentiated space the place manufacturers can connect with shoppers in novel methods”
Past the Atlantic Competition, the writer produces about 25 occasions yearly, starting from vertical-specific summits to personal salons and roundtables.
The Atlantic plans to broaden that slate in 2026, notably as synthetic intelligence continues to reshape digital engagement, in keeping with McKown.
“Subsequent 12 months, we can be doubling down on occasions,” McKown stated.
