The Atlantic

The Atlantic is a magazine published by The Atlantic Monthly Group. By its own account it was founded in Boston in the spring of 1857 by a group who “were fierce opponents of slavery” but who also “were moved to overcome what they saw as the limits of partisanship,” and the first issue appeared in November 1857.

Founding Statement

The magazine still republishes the mission statement printed in that first issue and signed by, among others, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its third clause states the magazine’s political stance:

In Politics, The Atlantic will be the organ of no party or clique, but will honestly endeavor to be the exponent of what its conductors believe to be the American idea.

The magazine describes those principles as still its own: “reason should always guide opinion; ideas have consequences, sometimes world-historical consequences; the knowledge we have about the world is partial and provisional, and subject to analysis, scrutiny, and revision.”

Current Publishing

The Atlantic publishes a monthly print issue built around a cover story alongside continuous digital publishing at theatlantic.com. Its own press releases document a podcast slate led by Radio Atlantic, a games and crossword product line, newsletters, and the annual Atlantic Festival, held for the eighteenth time in New York in September 2026.

Sourcing Note

Three claims this page previously carried are removed as unsourceable: a figure of 11 million monthly unique visitors and a “2500% increase” attributed to the 2008 removal of the paywall; a statement that one-third of readers are outside the United States; and a count of ten cover stories a year. The Atlantic publishes no audience figures on its accessible pages. A connections entry naming Emerson Collective as owner was also removed — the claim could not be confirmed from any source that could be fetched, and no emerson-collective page exists in this knowledge base for it to point at.