Don't Call It a Redesign
Engagement, impact, aesthetics -- for TheAtlantic.com's new home page, there's method to the makeover. More »
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Bob Cohn is the editor of Atlantic Digital. He oversees editorial affairs for TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic Wire, The Atlantic Cities, and The Atlantic's mobile platforms. He has worked as executive editor at Wired and The Industry Standard and as a writer at Newsweek. More
Bob Cohn is editor of Atlantic Digital. In this role, he oversees all editorial components of The Atlantic’s digital and mobile properties, including TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic Wire, and The Atlantic Cities, as well as the presentation of the print publication’s content on digital platforms.
Prior to joining The Atlantic in January 2009, Cohn was for eight years executive editor of Wired, where he helped the magazine find a mainstream following and earn a national reputation. 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 1990s, 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.
Since his arrival in 2009, Atlantic Digital has received numerous journalistic honors. For the past three consecutive years, The Atlantic has been named a National Magazine Award finalist for “General Excellence, Digital,” among other categories. The Atlantic was also named a finalist for Magazine of the Year (print and web combined) in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, TheAtlantic.com received Min Online’s “Best of the Web” award for “Editorial Excellence “ Overall” and in 2012, Cohn and colleagues were recognized as Min’s “Digital Team of the Year.” Following Cohn’s first year at The Atlantic, TheAtlantic.com received a Webby Award for Best Magazine, and in the months after the launch of Atlantic Cities, the site received Ad Age’s Media Vanguard Award for Best Web Vertical Launch.
Individually, Cohn has been recognized for his accomplishments at The Atlantic. In 2012, he was inducted into Min’s Digital Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2010 he was named one of Washington, D.C.’s 50 Most Powerful People by GQ.
Cohn’s work has been recognized with a variety of other national awards for editing and writing. 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.
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