“We decided to prioritize digital over everything else. We were no longer going to be ‘The Atlantic, which happens to do digital.’ We were going to be a digital media company that also published The Atlantic magazine.”
That must have been a frightening prospect for a number of people, I suggested in a conversation with Smith at The Atlantic‘s offices last month.
“It’s easier to be ‘digital first’ when your legacy business is not strong, when you have nothing to defend,” Smith explained. “At the time, all we had to defend was red ink.”
via mashable.com
This is a terrifying prospect, but I understand its implications. Building a digital media company is so very difficult when you have a thriving print media company. This piece on Mashable is a great read.
