Skip Navigation
Bob Cohn

Bob Cohn

Bob Cohn is editorial director of Atlantic Digital. He has worked as executive editor at Wired and The Industry Standard and as a writer at Newsweek. More

Bob Cohn is editorial director of Atlantic Digital. He oversees editorial operations for TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic Wire, and The Atlantic's mobile platforms.

Prior to joining TheAtlantic.com in January 2009, Cohn was for eight years the executive editor of Wired Magazine. He oversaw all editorial aspects of the magazine, helping to supervise a staff of 40 journalists and dozens of freelancers. Under his leadership, Wired was nominated seven times for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence and won the honor three times.

For nearly two years during the dot-com boom, Cohn was executive editor at The Industry Standard, a newsweekly covering the Internet economy. He directed a staff of writers and editors, planned and edited cover stories, and was in charge of editorial special projects, including the company's extensions into television, radio, international publishing, and new domestic magazines. During the late '90s, he worked four years as editor and, later, publisher of Stanford magazine, and as editorial director of the Stanford Alumni Association, overseeing the bimonthly magazine, the online department, electronic newsletters, and other communications programs.

Cohn began his journalism career at Newsweek, where he worked in the Washington bureau for 10 years. He served as the magazine's legal affairs correspondent, with responsibility for the Supreme Court, the Justice Department, and the FBI, and later was named the magazine's White House correspondent. He covered the presidency of Bill Clinton from 1993 to early 1996.

Cohn's work has been recognized with a variety of national awards for editing and writing. TheAtlantic.com won a Webby Award for Best Magazine in 2009 and in 2010 was nominated for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in two categories: Best Magazine Web Site and Magazine of the Year (Print/Digital). During his tenure at Wired, the magazine was nominated for 11 National Magazine Awards and won six, including the three citations for General Excellence. At Newsweek, where he shared in more than a dozen awards, he was honored with the American Bar Association's prestigious Silver Gavel Award for coverage of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation process. At Stanford magazine, a story he wrote on the university's affirmative action policies was named best article of the year in college magazines. The next year, Stanford was named the best university publication in the country by Folio magazine.

Cohn graduated from Stanford with high honors and later earned a master's degree in the Study of Law from Yale Law School as a Ford Foundation Fellow. A native of Chicago, he lives with his wife and two daughters outside Washington, D.C.

Filtered by blog articles (Clear filter)

Scalia: Our Political System Is 'Designed for' Gridlock

Scalia: Our Political System Is 'Designed for' Gridlock

The justice says the Supreme Court is deciding fewer cases because Congress is passing fewer pieces of major legislation… More »

FDA Chief Hamburg on 'Deadly' Listeria Outbreak in Cantaloupe

The commissioner called this "one of the most serious" outbreaks in decades, and said her agency needs stronger ties to entrepreneurs… More »

Introducing The Atlantic Cities

Introducing The Atlantic Cities

Our new site explores the most innovative ideas and pressing issues facing an increasingly urban world… More »

On Election Night, the Place to Be

Live blogging, interactive maps, Twitter feeds, and more… More »

Vote for The Atlantic for Best Magazine Cover

Our May 2010 issue has been selected by the American Society of Magazine Editors as a finalist for Best Cover in the "News and Business" category. You can vote for The Atlantic over at Amazon, which is hosting the contest. (Click on Best in News & Business in the left column.)The May issue featured a compelling story by Marc Ambinder on the war against obesity in America. The wonderful cover illustration is by Alex Ostroy.Bonus: Vote for The Atlantic (or, OK,…… More »

The Mind of Elena Kagan

A conversation about the nominee with Supreme Court watcher Stuart Taylor… More »

TheAtlantic.com, Reloaded

TheAtlantic.com, Reloaded

Notice anything different? Our new site is a lot like the old one—but (we hope you agree) so much better.… More »

Editor's Note

On September 24, Recession Road Trip wrote about Charles Zimmerman, a 60-year-old former soldier who, together with his wife, was newly homeless in Sacramento. Zimmerman had been the subject of a post a week earlier that described his efforts to get the military to pay him his pension, which he said had been caught in red tape for years. Now, we reported, in the aftermath of our first post, Zimmerman said he had been approached by an Army official who promised him…… More »

"Radar" O'Reilly

"Radar" O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly has 833,025 followers on Twitter. No doubt more by the time you click over to his account. And he's written 7,688 status updates. Not only that, but as one of the smartest writers and thinkers on technology, he's devoted some time to figuring out what Twitter really means -- and how he can best use it. He compares himself to a point guard on a basketball team -- "handing out assists" by "using my retweets to build the visibility of others and create…… More »

Information May Want to be Free. But Not Journalism.

My first real job in journalism was writing about labor unions and workplace issues. Brushing up, I read a book called The Teamsters that was then about six years old. It was an amazing history of power, greed, and crime at the most powerful union in the world, back when unions had real power. The author, a Yale Law school grad named Steve Brill, published the book when he was just 29. He went on to an impressive career as a media entrepreneur: founder of American…… More »

O'Connor on the Court

You gotta like Sandra Day O'Connor. She's spirited, direct, no-nonsense and, three years after stepping down from the Supreme Court, gives the jaunty impression she is telling you things she ought not be saying. So it was in our conversation earlier this month at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where O'Connor was among 16 public officials, politicians, writers, and business leaders to sit with TheAtlantic.com for video interviews. … More »

Justice Breyer and the "Stress" of Confirmation

Fifteen summers after he was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer said his Senate hearings were "stressful" even though "my confirmation was supposed to be pretty noncontroversial." In an interview with TheAtlantic.com at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this month, Breyer remembered what it was like to testify: "There are 17 senators on one side of the table, and I'm on the other side. And people are watching me on…… More »

The GOP's "Rebuilding Year"

The GOP's "Rebuilding Year"

Tim Pawlenty on reviving the Republican party… More »

QOTD

It's time to start thinking of our transit and infrastructure projects less in political terms and more as a set of strategic investments that are fundamental to the speed and scope of our economic recovery.… More »

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Where in the World? Part 3: A Google Earth Puzzle

May 25, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)