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.

Editor's Note

By Bob Cohn
Nov 5 2009, 4:26 PM ET Comment

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 a check for $972,000, back pay for the 18 years since his retirement.

Shortly after the September 24 post, we were doing follow-up reporting on Mr. Zimmerman's story in preparation for a new post. During this process, we became concerned about some aspects of his account. On October 19, we posted an update (scroll to bold type) describing these concerns and detailing the new efforts we were taking to verify our previous posts. Those efforts are still underway, and we will report back fully when we have satisfactory answers. In the meantime, we can confirm that Mr. Zimmerman did serve in the Army, but not that he has been promised or has received any new pension payments as a result of his service.



Presented by

More at The Atlantic

The 10 bEST and 10 Worst States for High-Tech Business The 10 Best and 10 Worst States for High-Tech Business
A Hauntingly Beautiful Zombie Love Story A Zombie Love Story
Book Reviews Aren't Dead (Just Ask The Wall Street Journal) Long Live Book Reviews
Tiger Woods Should See a Psychiatrist Tiger Should See a Psychiatrist
Love Stinks: An Economic Manifesto Love (on the Internet) Stinks

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Special Report
The Civil War National Portrait Gallery The Civil War
A 150th-anniversary commemorative issue, with Atlantic work by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and others. Read more ›
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Valentine's Day 2012

Feb 14, 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)