Atlantic Monthly owner David Bradley has nabbed Wired Publisher Jay Lauf as publisher of the culture and politics magazine.
Lauf’s task will be to staff up the New York office with about 20 to 25 people. Elizabeth Baker Keffer, Lauf’s predecessor, is staying with the company in Washington to run the events business, which includes the Aspen Ideas Festival.
No replacement has been named at Condé Nast-owned Wired.
The hire comes as Bradley tries to pare losses of up to $5 million a year.
Last year, Atlantic Monthly’s ad pages were down 1 percent to 636.7, while its ad revenue gained nearly 8 percent to $33.2 million, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. So far this year, the Atlantic has slipped 12 percent in ad pages.
“In the second half of 2007, we increased our ad prices by 390 percent,” said Atlantic Monthly President Justin Smith. “I felt our ad pages were underpriced compared to some of our competitors.”
The result, he said, was that some advertisers balked at the price hikes.