'The Atlantic' Makes Big Push Into Video With 3 Original Series

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By Lauren Indvik2013-08-12 16:32:14 UTC

The Atlantic is making a big push into original video with the launch of three new series this month.

Two of those series are built around The Atlantic's younger, albeit well-known, editors: senior editor Alexis Madrigal, who leads the magazine's technology and science coverage online and in print, and senior editor Derek Thompson, who covers business for TheAtlantic.com. Both shows are short, with episodes averaging between two and three minutes in length.

Madrigal's show, "The User's Guide to Energy," launched a week ago and is sponsored by Shell. This series features the animations of Lindsey Testolin and is narrated by Madrigal. Together, they conspire to help readers understand how energy works in America. The first video, "How Do We Use Energy at Home?" (embedded above) shows how changing demographics and technologies have altered home energy consumption over the past three decades. A later video plans to introduce viewers to the components of crude oil.

Thompson's show, "Economics in Plain English," premieres Monday and is sponsored by Box. It promises to cover a range of business topics, starting with an answer to the question of why bottled water is so expensive. (I'd give you the short answer, but his video, above, is worth watching.) The format is similar to the explainer approach Thompson takes in his own writing, now with the added benefits of moving illustrations and audio narration.

It's fitting The Atlantic should build off its in-house personalities for videos: The magazine has long prided itself as being a "platform for voices," and features the names and photos of its writers prominently on its website. According to Bob Cohn, editor of Atlantic Digital, told Mashable that another benefit is the price: The organization is taking its in-house talent and building series around them. Additional series are planned for other channel editors and major writers, Cohn added.

The Atlantic isn't the only media organization making a major push into original video. The New York Times , AOL, Conde Nast and dozens of other organizations are quickly ramping up their efforts, too.

Part of the timing involves the growing video consumption on web and mobile, and another — probably larger — part has to do with growing advertiser investment in the space (see chart above). There's also a "me too" effect: Traditional print and web-native organizations are finding ways of producing and distributing high-quality video with far less resources than the TV guys. The Atlantic's video department has only three full-time people, who handle all of the production and editing and most of the shooting as well.

As for The Atlantic, Cohn says the organization has known for awhile it has wanted to get more deeply involved with video, and at the beginning of the year created a strategic plan and then started hiring for it. "It's clear our readers are interested in video, and so are our advertisers," says Cohn. "What's important for us is to bring out video that's consistent with Atlantic values, not just do video for video's sake. It has to be original, smart, fresh and entertaining… what Atlantic readers expect from us."

Later this month, The Atlantic is launching a third original series, an exploration of the creative process with leaders in business, the arts and technology. More are slated to launch this fall, including a series dubbed "Advice to a Younger Me" (working title). Beyond original series, the publication will also produce one-offs and short documentaries, and continue to aggregate video from third-party sources.

For now, distribution is limited to TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic's iOS app, as well as to The Atlantic's YouTube and Vimeo channels, which launched earlier Monday. A video channel on The Atlantic's iOS app is on the way, a spokesperson for the publication says.

Images: The Atlantic and eMarketer

Topics: Business, Media, ONLINE VIDEO, the atlantic, Video