I have some random thoughts about

the Atlantic situation.

I worked at Quartz when it was owned by the Atlantic so I got to know David Bradley’s style a little. It’s very patrician and genteel. He’s a very nice, kind, even sweet man, who has done amazing things in media and much charitable work,

but he doesn’t really know how to relate to… people. In his speeches and talks at Quartz, he would usually say one totally out of touch thing. Usually they were awkwardly funny, so it’s sad how tone-deaf his memo was — that there will be “no place” for those let go.

It’s surprising he’s running the show. Why is he making the announcement and not Laurene, or Peter Lattman? It’s quite a bullet to take and may be one of his final acts as titular owner of the brand, as he is supposed to be transitioning away from being the managing partner.

What has the outrage machine fired up, not wrongly, is that The Atlantic is boasting about its growing subscription business on the one hand, and laying off a ton of people on the other.

Presumably, most of these people are smart and good at what they do. They have a very high bar for hiring at Atlantic Media.

So what’s most shocking is that the business doesn’t seem to be interested in doing any work with those let go on skills retraining or figuring out how to support the Atlantic’s new subscription revenue business, or build a new business line.

Most of those let go were on the events team. While big live, in person events are likely not coming back any time soon, what about deploying those people towards figuring out how to make virtual events into a business?

The tools are there for revenue collection. Something worthy of that brand and money or sponsor underwriting would take just as much production and coordination as a live event.

The Atlantic has access to the preeminent thinkers and actors of the entire world. If there is a media organization that could compete with Masterclass almost overnight, it’s this one.

These events and classes could quickly become just as elite and brand and revenue impactful as anything the business put on in person last year.

Now some people working there still might not fit in that new plan. And they may not want to learn new skills. So of course there might be some parting of ways.

No one is suggesting The Atlantic or Laurene Jobs should put people on welfare or keep people around that don’t contribute to the business.

But being a billionaire, Jobs could have easily floated these people more of a lifeline beyond a generous severance. Rather than just right-size the business, she could have helped a slew of people future-proof their careers.

It’s not like they’re going to get hired to produce live events literally anywhere else in the world right now.

Why not 16 weeks of job training instead of severance? Why not a crash program to rethink Atlantic Live, not from the top down, but the bottom up?

These are the limits of top-down, patrician-style management common to media.