The Atlantic Festival is set to open in New York City next week, bringing more than 40 events packed with conversations on the economy, artificial intelligence, film and politics to Lower Manhattan. Atlantic CEO Nick Thompson joined The Rush Hour on Tuesday to preview the three-day festival, which will feature guests ranging from former NFL quarterback turned entrepreneur Colin Kaepernick to actors Florence Pugh and Laura Linney.
Thompson told Spectrum News NY1 that the festival will host conversations with writers, editors and guests covering a wide swath of subjects, including first-looks at new films alongside deeper dives into the economy and AI. The lineup also includes former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, actor Andrew McCarthy and chef and television personality Padma Lakshmi, according to the same NY1 report.
A Festival Built Around Ideas, Culture and Newsmakers
The event mixes journalism-driven panels with cultural programming, a format that has become central to how The Atlantic positions itself in the New York media landscape. Beyond the names confirmed by NY1, the festival's broader roster for 2026 includes journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, composer Nicholas Britell, politician Rahm Emanuel, psychologist Jonathan Haidt and Senator Mark Kelly, according to the Downtown Alliance.
The festival runs September 17 through 19 and is hosted primarily at the Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, per the Downtown Alliance's event listing. PAC NYC, which opened at the World Trade Center in 2023, has become the anchor venue for the festival's mainstage sessions.
From D.C.'s Wharf to Lower Manhattan
This marks the second consecutive year the festival has been staged in New York City after a run of 16 consecutive years hosted at The Wharf in Washington, D.C., according to New York Social Diary. The 2025 NYC debut featured more than 100 speakers across over 30 sessions, including a live conversation with David Letterman and an advance screening of Ken Burns's PBS documentary series The American Revolution, the outlet reported.
The festival's outer-borough footprint is also expanding this year. The Atlantic is co-hosting a satellite panel titled The Atlantic Festival & The American Reading Crisis at the Brooklyn Public Library on September 19, presented as an official Bookend event for the Brooklyn Book Festival, according to the library's event listing. That session features Atlantic writer Rose Horowitch alongside authors Tayari Jones and Hilary Leichter.
The Business Behind the Bigger Stage
The festival's growth tracks with a broader turnaround at the magazine itself. Under Thompson, who took over as CEO in February 2021, The Atlantic became profitable in early 2024 after previously posting annual losses exceeding $20 million, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab. Thompson previously served as editor-in-chief of Wired before moving into management at The Atlantic.
By early 2024, the magazine had surpassed 1 million total paid subscriptions, with digital-only plans making up 56% of that base and print-digital bundles accounting for the remaining 44%, the Nieman Lab reported. Digital subscription prices climbed from $50 in 2021 to $80 by 2024. A year later, total circulation had reached 1.1 million subscribers, a 15% year-over-year increase that made The Atlantic the 20th largest magazine by circulation in the United States, with overall revenue approaching $100 million, according to Press Gazette.
Press Gazette also reported that subscriptions generate roughly two-thirds of the company's total revenue. Bucking a wider industry trend of print cutbacks, the magazine announced plans to increase its print publishing frequency from 10 to 12 issues a year, returning to a monthly print schedule for the first time since 2002.
The Atlantic is majority-owned by Emerson Collective, the organization founded by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, which acquired its controlling stake in 2017, per Press Gazette's reporting. That ownership structure has reportedly mandated the magazine operate as a self-sustaining for-profit entity, a mandate that helps explain why live events like next week's festival have become such a visible part of the brand's strategy alongside its subscription and print businesses.
