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Atlantic Media owner David Bradley announced Friday that he will sell the anchor of his sprawling Washington-based media empire: its iconic, 160-year-old monthly magazine, to Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs' widow and one of the richest people in the world.
Bradley, 64, announced the sale in a morning memo to his staff. He will initially retain a minority stake.
"I want to let you know that I am entering into a partnership with Emerson Collective, the business and philanthropic venture of Laurene Powell Jobs," Bradley said in the memo.
"For a time, Emerson Collective and I will own jointly, and then Emerson Collective alone, The Atlantic - magazine, websites and affiliated businesses."
Bradley said the sale would be a slow transition from his leadership to that of the new owner's. The price was not disclosed.
"Laurene and I have settled on a plan that, as I approach 70, Emerson Collective will take full ownership of The Atlantic and she serve in my stead as leader of the enterprise," Bradley said.
Atlantic Media is an amalgam of disparate businesses employing 730 (125 at National Journal). The empire brings in around $135 million in revenue and is profitable.
Bradley made his fortune by founding two companies, the Advisory Board and Corporate Executive Board, which he took public and sold. It gave him hundreds of millions of dollars to pursue his journalism interests.
Bradley foreshadowed changes in his media empire, which is located in the Watergate complex near Foggy Bottom, in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this year.
"I want to find somebody who will love it as much as I've loved it," he said during the interview.
Indeed, in his memo he said he began the search for possible owners a year ago, when he asked a small group of researchers to identify would-be successors. The list came to 600.
He narrowed the list to the top 50 "remarkable" names.
"And, for me," he said, "from the first, Laurene Powell Jobs sat atop the list."
Journalist Leon Wieseltier - formerly of the New Republic - "first put me onto the possibility that Laurene might come to love The Atlantic as I have." Bradley and Jobs first met in Washington in January, where they discussed the possibility of her taking over.
Jobs has a net worth of about $11.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. She inherited her husband's fortune. Apple founder Steve Jobs was one of the most respected names in business when he died of cancer in October 2011.
Bradley and his wife, Katherine, are a big presence around Washington. They are also investors in Axios, the news company started by Washington journalists Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei. The recent sale of his Watergate headquarters for $135 million to Washington REIT may have been part of a succession plan.
Atlantic has endured a rough road, largely because of the digital revolution. Bradley has said he has lost more than $100 million over the past decade.
In addition to the magazine, which is one of the most respected publications in the world, Atlantic media includes the National Journal, Quartz online news site, live event organizer, video and studios.
The company includes a repertoire of profitable divisions under a revamped National Journal, once a must-read for the elite across the country. Bradley famously closed the print National Journal at the end of 2015 after years of trying to turn a profit.
The National Journal's new iteration won't be part of the sale to the Emerson Collective. It creates valuable content for companies, lobbyists and institutions that need an inside track on Washington's workings. Those insider information outfits are wrapped in wonky names such as Presentation Center, Policy Brands Roundtable and Network Science Initiative, which is headed by a former counterterrorism expert who worked on the Obama administration's National Security Council.
Some journalism remains in the Hotline and National Journal Daily reports.
But nearly three-quarters of National Journal's 125 employees work on things that did not exist in 2011, building road maps to Washington power players, analyzing potential effects of executive orders and legislation, and providing companies with inside dope on what Washington influencers think of them.