Introducing The Atlantic Cities

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I grew up in an apartment on the 22nd floor of a 44-story high-rise on the north side of Chicago. I took the 156 LaSalle to school, made a model of the John Hancock Tower for my sixth-grade science project, and spent a high school summer working in City Hall. (I knew a guy who knew a guy.) Since then, I've lived in Washington, Boston, New Haven, and San Francisco -- and a few suburbs along the way.

All this is to say that I'm part of the fat target audience of a new Atlantic site that launches today. But you don't have to be a city slicker to appreciate The Atlantic Cities. This is the place for stories on housing, commuting, and public art; for charts, graphs, maps, and rankings; and for conversation and debate among the leading voices on urbanism. The Atlantic Cities is for people who care about the issues and ideas that are changing where and how we live, work, and play.

Two people have been critical to the creation of this site. Atlantic senior editor Richard Florida, one of the most original thinkers around on global cities, is the intellectual anchor. Sommer Mathis, whose tours of journalistic duty include DCist, TBD.com, and Washingtonian, is the editor. You can read their introductions to the site here and here. Working with a talented team of writers, editors, designers, developers, and multimedia hands, Rich and Sommer have created a Web destination for urban wonks and curious consumers alike.

For The Atlantic, the Cities site is part of our growing collection of digital properties. This site, TheAtlantic.com, aims to provide analysis and commentary on the most important issues of the day across seven channels, from politics and business to foreign affairs, technology and entertainment. The Atlantic Wire, launched in 2009, covers news of the day with fast takes on what matters now. And today, The Atlantic Cities begins exploring the challenges and promises of city life. The common mission: to offer real intelligence in a world drowning in information bits, and to foster the smartest conversation on the Web.

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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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