David Bradley is selling the Atlantic magazine to Laurene Powell Jobs’s nonprofit
Emerson Collective, a little-known but big-money group funded by Laurene Powell Jobs’s Apple fortune, took its biggest step into the scrutinizing national spotlight Friday by agreeing to acquire a majority stake in Washington-based Atlantic magazine.
The deal comes after Atlantic Media owner David Bradley spent a year searching for a buyer for the influential print and online journal that sits at the heart of his news empire. Bradley, in a staff memo announcing the deal, said he narrowed down the candidates and, “From the first, Laurene Powell Jobs sat atop the list.”
Now, Powell Jobs joins the list of people using fortunes minted in technology to change the media landscape. Those undertakings include eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s investment in the Intercept; the Mercer family’s financial support of Breitbart; Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes’s ill-fated acquisition of the New Republic; and Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos’s purchase of The Washington Post.