TheAtlantic.com reaches 31.5 million uniques in November, growing audience more than 50 percent year over year.
Washington, D.C. (December 2, 2015)—TheAtlantic.com broke previous audience records in November with 31.5 million unique visitors, marking the third consecutive month of record traffic. Year over year for September-November, The Atlantic grew its audience by more than 50 percent—following an expansive redesign of the site earlier this year and the debuts of the Science section and Notes, the site’s return to blogging. In addition to these new features, the growth can also be attributed to a larger editorial staff and increased depth and volume of news coverage that will continue to grow in 2016.
The latest audience numbers come at a time of unprecedented revenue growth for the brand as well. The Atlantic enters the final month of the year with revenues for digital advertising, its events division AtlanticLIVE, and Atlantic Media Strategies, its creative consultancy, each showing growth of between 20 to 50 percent. The news was announced today by president and editor in chief James Bennet and president and chief operating officer Bob Cohn.
Today’s announcement reflects a continuing strategic expansion for The Atlantic and its flagship website. Recent editorial projects include “What To Do About ISIS?,” a collection of essays and responses from leading thinkers on the hard choices facing the world when it comes to combatting ISIS—and inspired by the March cover story, “What ISIS Really Wants,” a deeply reported and clear-eyed explanation of the ideology behind the Islamic State by Graeme Wood. The piece has reached 13.4 million readers online, making it the most-read story in The Atlantic’s history.
Also in November, The Atlantic’s culture team produced “The Actual Worst,” a 16-bracket quest pitting to identify television’s worst character. The series has so far drawn 150,000 votes and seen high engagement, with visitors narrowing the two finalists to Game of Thrones’s Ramsey Bolton and Hannibal Lecter. The winner (or more aptly loser) will be named this week.
With a new year approaching and the 2016 election season already in full swing, the Washington, D.C.-based editorial team is preparing to significantly ramp up coverage of politics and policy inside the Beltway and beyond. Site editor J.J. Gould and politics editor Yoni Appelbaum will lead a growing staff of political reporters, overseeing expanded coverage of the White House, Congress, and the federal agencies. The new politics and policy section will launch in early 2016.