Wired publisher leaving for Atlantic Monthly

Richard Perez-Pena reports Thursday that Jay Lauf, the publisher of Wired magazine, is leaving to become publisher of the Atlantic Monthly.

Perez-Pena wrote, “For Mr. Lauf, 44, the move is more unorthodox, taking him from a larger, more lucrative magazine to a smaller, less prosperous one. Wired has a circulation of 706,000, compared with 432,000 for The Atlantic, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and Publishers Information Bureau says that Wired has more than twice as many ad pages.

“He is also leaving one of the largest and richest magazine companies in the world, Condé Nast — owner of Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker and Architectural Digest — where colleagues say he is valued, to work for a relatively small company.

“‘I like a challenge, and I think there’s an interesting opportunity to revitalize a brand that I have long loved,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I would do this for any other magazine.'”

Read more here.