I’ve let my subscription to the Atlantic lapse. The writing quality and topic selection are closer to a second-tier college newspaper than a serious journalistic publication.

Most of their talented contributors are mostly gone, and the current crop of “cool kid” writers seem to just regurgitate what they are following on Twitter.

It's yet another news outlet purchased by a tech billionaire. Happened in 2017: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurene_Powell_Jobs

She's also been friends and sometimes business partners for decades with Carlos Watson, the guy who perpetrated the OZY fraud. That may help if you want an idea of her taste in, and ability to evaluate the quality of, journalism.

What are your options to make yourself a going concern as a media company in 2022?

Become a tech company, like the NY Times (separate subscriptions for cooking & games, affiliate via Wirecutter, get into podcasts, newsletters, etc.) - they've kind of Buzzfeed-ified themselves.

Or get a rich patron. The latter has worked for decades for money-losing conservative journals. (For interesting anecdata about one of them, check out this analysis of Commentary: https://danielstone.substack.com/p/commentary-finances-john-...)

The journalism in The Atlantic is quite frankly garbage and they are essentially importing outrage directly from Twitter to riddle their articles with ads so they can continue to grift their subscription plan.

I've found it to be pretty on par with the Economist, but more US focused with a bit more clickbait. I've read some great articles on there, but wouldn't be in any rush to subscribe.