The Atlantic staffers announce intention to unionize

In a 1916 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, John D. Rockefeller Jr. wrote about workers’ right to organize. More than 100 years later, the staffers of that same publication are exercising that right.

Staffers at The Atlantic announced Monday their plans to form a union and referenced in their mission statement Rockefeller Jr.’s essay, in which he said the “right of men to associate themselves together for their mutual advancement is incontestable.”

The Atlantic’s management appears to agree with this sentiment, announcing their intention to work with the union’s organizers on voluntary recognition shortly after plans were announced.

“We have just had one of the most extraordinary years in the history of our magazine,” Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in an email to staff Monday. “We look forward to even greater journalistic achievements in the years ahead, and we believe that the process before us can be collaborative in a way that reflects our culture and editorial mission.”

The unit would consist of about 85 people and covers editorial employees, including writers, editors, the art team, copy desk, audience, fact-checking, podcasts and experimental storytelling.

David A. Graham, a member of the organizing committee and a staff writer at The Atlantic, told CNN Business that 85% of those staffers have signed union cards with the NewsGuild of New York. The Atlantic joins a slew of recent organizing efforts across the media industry, including digital-native newsroom Insider, the tech workers at The New York Times and Forbes.

“I think being one of the few remaining shops that isn’t unionized puts us in a sort of strange place in the industry,” Graham said. “I’ve talked to people who are wary at this point of coming to a non-union shop because everywhere else is and they want to work at those places.”

While unionization has become the norm across media and talks have been going on at The Atlantic for a while, the organizing effort gained more momentum after the company laid off 17% of its staff last May. Management attributed the layoffs to the global pandemic decimating the company’s ad revenue and in-person events business. The ordeal “rattled” staffers, Graham said.

The Atlantic’s layoffs also perplexed media observers who questioned why its owner could not have avoided layoffs amid the pandemic. Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of philanthropic organization Emerson Collective, bought a majority stake in The Atlantic in 2017. Forbes estimates her net worth to be $19 billion.

The Atlantic has been focused on growing its subscriber base after putting up a digital paywall in 2019, following an industry trend of making money directly from readers rather than relying on advertising revenue. When announcing the layoffs last May, management shared the company’s goal of reaching 1 million subscribers by December 2022. The Atlantic surpassed the halfway point of that goal in September 2020.

The union referenced instability in the media industry in its mission statement.

“We have faith in our leadership, but in a time of upheaval in our industry and nation, we also wish to ensure that all of the staffers who contribute to The Atlantic’s successes are justly rewarded for their labor and free to speak their mind on matters of concern,” the union wrote. “To this end, we have decided to join our peers across the industry in forming a union.”

Also in the mission statement, The Atlantic staffers said they are unionizing to “create a more equitable and diverse workplace that provides fair compensation and meaningful support to its workers, particularly its junior staff.”

Graham told CNN Business the topic of “protecting and defending ideological diversity” became an important conversation during the organizing effort.

“Ideological diversity has always been one of our strengths as a publication,” Graham said. “We want to make sure that’s something that remains defended.”

Emerson Collective did not respond to CNN Business’ request for comment on the union.

As Politico reported Friday, management at The Atlantic has recently made changes addressing concerns around inequity. But to Graham, these moves — new compensation tiers, improved parental leave and encouraging vacation — serve as proof that the workplace could be even better through collective bargaining.

“This isn’t adversarial,” Graham said. “We think that there are some things about The Atlantic is doing right and some things we think we can improve. I think those steps they’ve taken already are an acknowledgment of that.”