Summary of How to save a magazine, with The Atlantic’s Nicholas Thompson

Overview of How to save a magazine, with The Atlantic’s Nicholas Thompson

This Masters of Scale episode features Nicholas Thompson — CEO of The Atlantic and author of the memoir The Running Ground — discussing how he led a business turnaround at The Atlantic, the strategic choices behind licensing deals with AI companies, talent and editorial trade-offs in legacy media, and lessons he’s learned from endurance running that he applies to leadership. The conversation covers concrete tactics (paywall/testing, product focus, direct consumer relationships), principles for negotiating with platform/AI companies, and personal anecdotes about his family and running.

Key takeaways

• Why Thompson took the job: he saw world‑class journalism plus a broken business model; his comparative advantage was building subscription-driven businesses for serious journalism.
• Data + experimentation drove the turnaround: The Atlantic ran ~230 tests on paywall/offer/marketing variables, iterated quickly, and tightened a rules-based paywall to better predict who would pay.
• Results: when Thompson arrived (announced Dec 2020) The Atlantic was losing roughly $20–30M/year, had cut staff, and was near stagnation. By late 2024 the org was profitable and subscriber count climbed past 1M (reported in the conversation as ~1.46M).
• AI licensing strategy: Thompson supports making deals (e.g., with OpenAI) to get compensated and to be part of shaping the new ecosystem, while reserving legal options. He argues for building mutually beneficial models (pro-rata payments, referral/subscription integrations) rather than one‑time, extractive scraping.
• Levers to gain leverage with AI platforms: block scraping (robots.txt + bot defenses), litigation, legislation (Europe/Australia), public pressure, and offering partnership models that align incentives.
• Talent retention vs creator independence: competing with Substack/YouTube means legacy outlets must offer editorial infrastructure (editing, fact-checking, promotion), career paths, and allowances for creators’ external projects — plus a mix of star hires and investment in young talent.
• Leadership lessons from running: real improvement requires intentionally uncomfortable training; psychological blocks limit performance; the simplicity of running makes it a laboratory for studying effort, pacing, and mindset — lessons transferable to managing teams.

Topics discussed

• State of The Atlantic on Thompson’s arrival (financial losses, layoffs, editorial strength)
• Strategy that worked: paywall redesign, rigorous A/B testing, subscription marketing
• Trade-offs of a hard paywall: advertising loss, brand/democracy considerations
• The OpenAI licensing deal: rationale, internal controversy, broader industry implications
• How platforms and AI companies should compensate creators (pro-rata, referrals, authentication)
• Practical levers for publishers to protect and monetize content
• Talent strategy in the era of creator platforms (Substack, independent podcasts, YouTube)
• Role of a CEO in a newsroom: church/state separation and when to speak publicly
• Thompson’s personal routines (daily running, LinkedIn video series) and how they aid learning and marketing
• The Running Ground — Thompson’s memoir about his father, running, and identity

Notable quotes / insights

• “What matters in life is not what you are best at, it’s what you are best at relative to your peers.” (on choosing the role)
• “If someone’s not going to subscribe, you want them to read the article. And if someone is going to subscribe, you want them to pay to read the article.” (on paywall design)
• On AI platforms: “There has to be a fair exchange of value.” (on licensing vs suing)
• On leverage against scraping: “Put a robots file up … then Cloudflare comes in and they’re actually good at blocking bots — so now we have a little bit of leverage.”
• On running and performance: a plateau was partly a “mental block” — unlocking it required confronting pain and changing expectations.

Actionable recommendations (for media leaders & CEOs)

• Treat subscription economics as an engineering problem: run frequent, measurable tests on paywall, offers, and paid acquisition.
• Build direct consumer products: better apps, newsletters, print/subscription bundles to reduce reliance on platforms.
• Harden technical defenses against large-scale scraping (robots.txt plus bot mitigation) to gain negotiation leverage.
• Negotiate for ongoing, structured value-exchange models with AI/search companies (pro-rata revenue-sharing, referral/subscription integrations, authenticated access).
• Retain talent by packaging editorial infrastructure, promotional reach, and opportunities for personal projects; combine marquee hires with investment in junior talent pipelines.
• Maintain editorial independence publicly but provide internal spaces for honest debate and belonging when issues of social trauma arise.
• For leaders: use performance disciplines (like disciplined, painful training in running) as metaphors — set ambitious targets, accept temporary discomfort, and lead people to realize higher potential rather than telling them outright what they can do.

About the guest and recommended reading

• Nicholas Thompson — CEO of The Atlantic, former Wired editor, author of The Running Ground (memoir about his father, running, and identity).
• If you want the personal side of the episode: read The Running Ground for the memoir material (father’s life, Thompson’s running journey, how mindset shifted performance).

Quick episode highlights / timestamps (approximate from transcript)

• Why Thompson took the Atlantic job and early diagnosis of the problem: financial loss vs editorial strength.
• Early tactical failures vs success (archives and affiliate experiments vs paywall testing).
• Mid‑turnaround fear: subscription dip in Year 2 and the 18‑month anxiety period.
• OpenAI licensing deal: internal backlash, strategic reasoning, and industry models for compensation.
• Talent competition with Substack and independent creator economy.
• Running as a leadership analogue, how Thompson broke his own performance plateau in his 40s.

This summary captures the episode’s core business strategies, industry stance on AI/content, leadership reflections, and the personal narrative strands Thompson weaves between running and running a media organization.