Change of venue, editor at the Atlantic Monthly

It has been nearly 150 years since the Atlantic Monthly magazine was born, its first offices located in Boston’s Old Corner Bookstore. It was on that site in the city’s downtown that a couple of book publishers bound the words of men such as Emerson and Thoreau and Longfellow, writers who would be among the Atlantic’s founders.

But great writers know that good narratives always have their twists, and the Atlantic staff got a big one this week when it learned that its owner of six years, David Bradley, will be moving the publication from Beantown to the Beltway over the next year, a decision rooted in economics -- and what Bradley calls “economies of intellect.”

Cullen Murphy, managing editor for 20 years, whom Bradley describes as the Atlantic’s “soul,” will not be moving. He will stay on through the new year, he says, then continue to edit some writers for a while. But he has no desire to go to Washington and will eventually fulfill a book contract he’s been putting off. He figures many colleagues will also remain in Boston.

Bradley -- a multimillionaire who owns the Washington-based National Journal Group, which has several publications that deal with the inner workings of Washington, says all employees will get at least a year’s pay.

Bradley doesn’t deny that the bottom line was a factor in the decision. The Atlantic has been in the hole for nearly 40 years, he says. But the other issue, in some ways more important, he says, is getting his magazines together in one place. “If I had 300 people in Boston and 37 people in Washington, I would be moving the 37 people to Boston,” he says.

Bradley bought the Atlantic from Mort Zuckerman in 1999 and installed Michael Kelly as editor. Kelly shifted the magazine to more of a news orientation before he returned to writing. He was killed covering the Iraq war in 2003.

The subscription base is 355,000, a spokesman says. Bradley adds that readership, or the number of people who see the magazine, has gone from 980,000 to 1.5 million in his six years. The magazine has also won a number of National Magazine Awards, including one this week for fiction.