Signal achievement: Lessons in subscription strategy from The Atlantic

In March last year, The Atlantic went from writing headlines to becoming one. In what would subsequently become known as “Signalgate,” then U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz erroneously added the American magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a messaging service group chat discussing military operations.

While the firestorm that surrounded subsequent coverage of the leak said a lot about the fractious relationship between the White House and the media, it also underlined the strong bond between the 169-year-old brand and its rapidly growing army of subscribers.

After the story first broke and The Atlantic published a partially redacted version of the Signal conversation, the magazine saw a predictable spike in subscribers. However, the reason people subscribed started to change after The Atlantic published a second, unredacted version of the leak — and the debate around government security practices, press freedom and the ethics of reporting leaked information really started to heat up.

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