Atlantic Monthly, publisher of Battle Hymn to the Republic, first among major magazines to reinvent itself

And make money in the process. The Atlantic Monthly has succeeded in this arduous task by injecting itself with a good dose of start-up mentality.

The Atlantic, the intellectual’s monthly that always seemed more comfortable as an academic exercise than a business, is on track to turn a tidy profit of $1.8 million this year. That would be the first time in at least a decade that it had not lost money.

Getting there took a cultural transfusion, a dose of counterintuition and a lot of digital advertising revenue.

“We imagined ourselves as a venture-capital-backed start-up in Silicon Valley whose mission was to attack and disrupt The Atlantic,” said Justin B. Smith, president of the Atlantic Media Company, who arrived at the magazine’s offices in the Watergate complex in 2007 with a mission to stanch the red ink. “In essence, we brainstormed the question, ‘What would we do if the goal was to aggressively cannibalize ourselves?’ ”

via The Atlantic Turns a Profit, With an Eye on the Web – NYTimes.com.

Check out its awesome Atlantic Wire and its even cooler Iphone App.