The events programming will be overseen by Evan Smith, the former founder and CEO of the Texas Tribune who built that outlet’s festival into a nationally recognized event. Smith now leads The Atlantic’s events operation.
Programming this year will feature fireside chats. The slate will then expand in its second two years, with the flagship 2028 voyage timed to the 40th anniversary of Seabourn and marketed as 12 Days with The Atlantic. The scope of the programming will resemble that of The Atlantic Festival, spanning culture, literature, technology, and business, and will be informed, in part, by whatever is animating The Atlantic’s journalism at the time.
The partnership arrives as The Atlantic has been leaning hard into live events as a growth vehicle.
Last year, events made up 25% of the company’s commercial revenue, anchored by The Atlantic Festival, which moved to New York last fall and generated 36% more revenue than the prior year, McKown said at the time.
The company produces roughly 25 events annually, and in 2025 launched The Atlantic Across America, a 50-state tour that has so far drawn more than 7,500 attendees across five events, with two more scheduled for April.
“We want to go to [audiences],” McKown said. “In the age of AI and the internet, just having your brand show up in person is so valuable and builds affinity and strengthens that relationship.”
The partnership is also backstopped by a company that has been on a remarkable run.
The Atlantic now counts 1.46 million total subscribers as of the second half of 2025, having added 300,000 net new subscriptions over the prior year. This 27% year-over-year gain has outpaced all but one of the 184 titles that filed audited figures with the Alliance for Audited Media, according to the publisher. The Atlantic also added more than 50 newsroom positions last year, bringing its editorial headcount above 200.
The company has been building its subscription base through a series of creative distribution moves, including a college subscription program that has enrolled more than 75 universities, and a program offering free digital access to every public high school in America. The Seabourn deal adds another channel, one where the potential subscriber base is self-selecting and well-matched.
“We did do math on subscription projections,” McKown said, “and we saw that there was considerable upside.”
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