The Atlantic's Joshua Green spits out his 6,000-word report on the Clinton campaign fall out, but only after sifting through hundreds of emails drenched in vitriol. [The Atlantic]

That harshly criticized issue of The Atlantic, featuring Britney Spears on the cover and a paparazzi expose inside, that had the magazine's loyalists aghast at how owner David Bradley could bring his well-respected title to such a low, was a newsstand disaster. It moved just 24,000 copies at the newsstand, or less than half what it moved in previous months. Lesson learned? Leave the celebrity shlock to the tabloids. Thankfully editor Justin Smith denied that the story had anything to do with an attempt to boost circulation, make the magazine profitable, and increase newsstand sales, because that defense is going to come in handy right about now.

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg does not understand blogging and should therefore have his writing privileges taken away. But it's hard to take things from people on the Internet, unless it's music, movies, or porn, so we're helpless. But our argument for it goes like this: He complains about getting bashed on the Internet. After the Observer's Matt Haber blogged about Goldberg's online debut, delivering a very hard slap on the back as a welcome, Goldberg whiningly blogged a reply after talking with colleague Andrew Sullivan about blogging politics, and how Haber uses blogging as a "loose" form of journalism. This, sadly, comes as news to Goldberg, who, while having dipped his feet in online chattering with Slate, does not understand that blog publishing is just an excuse for slander.

Details publisher Chris Mitchell moves over to Wired to take the same slot, left empty by The Atlantic's poaching of Jay Lauf. [MIN]

Brandy and François Navarre would make a lovely Hollywood "It" couple, if only they weren't the ones behind paparazzi agency X17, trafficking celebrity schlop to the highest bidder. Brandy, aka "Kelly", and François, aka "Regis" (they use pseudonyms because they once had dreams of doing something legitimate with their lives) are the subjects of the much ballyhooed issue of The Atlantic that has Britney Spears on the cover.

With their five million dollar Pacific Palisades home (they're neighbors with Adam Sandler, who they also tail), Porche Cayenne, and $80,000 from a single photo sale, it's clear who's profiting from Ms. Spears' troubles. Admitting to working with Sam Lufti to target Britney Spears, or Michael Lohan to go after Lindsay, at least one rival made the argument to us that this twosome is responsible for tearing more families apart than Dr. Phil is responsible for bringing together.

Even the staffers working for X17's website recognize how crude their employers are; they refuse to post items under their real names, fearing they'll never get another job in the future. And favorite-playing Brandy shamelessly admits to outright lying about the celebrities she covers: "We’ll put up a picture that’s so obviously negative and we just write something so completely ignorant of the focus of the picture and let the commenters online take care of it." Husband François is just as pleased with his misdeeds: "I don’t want to say anything, but in a way, X17 put three stars into rehab, if not in jail, this year." How surprising is it, then, to learn they met at the funeral of Frank Sinatra? They weren't invited guests; they were staking it out.

And don't even start on the photographers, who willingly admit to being prepared to break the law. One paparazzo, Felix, says, "To be a pap, you have to be ready to do anything, legal or illegal." That's quite the business model.

CONTINUED »

In 2005, the New York Times ran a front page story on Britney Spears. Prior and since then, Ms. Spears has appeared on hundreds, if not thousands, of tabloid magazine covers. And now, The Atlantic.

The high brow rag's cover story "The Britney Show" is getting plenty of flack – we're guessing most of it's from people who don't even read the magazine, but actual readers are apt to be pissed, too – for lowering its standards to include the decade's biggest celebrity trainwreck in its reportage.

Until this incident, it appeared owner David Bradley was New Yorker-ifying his magazine. Hiring The Week's Justin Smith to head things up, he put more focus on ad sales to boost the bottom line, ramped up its functionally terrible online presence by removing the pay wall (The New Yorker now posts most of its content on its website after posting almost zero), and learned about the fat margins of slapping its name on events like the Aspen Ideas Festival (The New Yorker Festival, anyone?). The only thing it had left to do was serialize its entire back catalogue on CD-ROM.

So why the about face? Though Smith would deny it has anything to do with a five-year plan to turn the magazine around into profitable territory, circulation and newsstand sales are down. And you know what can be a newsstand boon? A Britney Spears cover. (But not a Christina Aguilera one.)

To be sure, we're not looking at an Us Weekly Britney Spears cover story here; rather, The Atlantic's article goes inside The Britney Economy. Who are all those hangers-on? What's the role of the paparazzi? Is she going broke? are the questions we imagine they're trying to answer.

So if The Atlantic isn't a new People magazine, perhaps it's taking a page from the celebrity-meets-finance website MainStreet.com: Take elements of pop culture and use them as a newspeg for launching into your standard editorial voice.

And if we follow this strategy, the next issue will have a cover story on Emperor’s Club, Eliot Spitzer's agency of choice, and how its shuttering, along with all the unusable free publicity from cable news tlaking heads, will affect the global call girl economy. We'd read it.

Don't believe The Atlantic's website offshoot "The Current" is anything more than a blog.

Though they got trade mag Folio to call the sub-domain a "digital publication" – Folio also says the mag's online traffic is "2.3 monthly unique visitors" … million? – visitors will see familiar bylines attached to short-form posts in reverse chronological format. That is, a blog.

And the name? A bit too much EXACTLY LIKE Al Gore's cable network Current, which specializes in short-form programming that purposefully ditches the traditional, lengthy model.

The Hillary Clinton machine isn't as well-oiled as you think. Back in September, they worked vigorously to have a negative profile of the candidate, by Josh Green, killed from the pages of GQ; in exchange, they got access to Bill Clinton for a cover photo. Controversy ensued, but the Clintons got what they wanted.

Not this month.

While Green may have collected his kill fee (we're assuming), he didn't lose his reporting.

Which is why The Atlantic editor, shockingly!, has an article in this months Atlantic. Which is exactly what Camp Clinton needs as she faces her toughest battle against Barack Obama.

It's just too bad Chris Matthews has to play nice to Hillary these days.

Unless you’re some weird form of pagan and believe there are only 10 months in a year, The Atlantic Monthly hasn’t been a monthly in some time. So from now on, it’ll just be The Atlantic, thank you very much.

And unless you’re ugly and smart, there’s no point in living in D.C. So The Atlantic has decided to re-move its sales and marketing to New York. Maybe they’ll stick in this city. New York rules.

For a magazine that just moved from Boston to Washington, New York seems like an odd location for The Atlantic’s 150th Anniversary party. But as Andrew Sullivan says, “You can’t have a party unless it’s in New York.”

Fair enough. But that doesn’t explain The Atlantic’s venue choice: a theater in the village. With a full audience, the party was one-part open bar, one-part performance piece. While we drank, we couldn’t help but feel bad for The Atlantic fans in the crowd who had to watch a New York magazine photographer take pictures of Jared Kushner. The New Yorker festival seemed modest by comparison.

CONTINUED »

Goodbye Time, hello Atlantic.

That's the fourth-grader-with-ADD version of explaining the news that broke over the weekend with regard to Andrew Sullivan. The gay republican blogger – which, some might fairly argue, is an oxymoron wrapped in self-hate – is making the jump after more than a year of giving the Time Inc. website his devout following. Oh, did we mention there's lots of cash involved?

And even if there wasn't, it's nice to see Sullivan pull a Howard Stern and use his old digs to plug his new home:

That's what this blog, at its core and at its best, is about; it's what the readers of this blog care about; and it's what the Atlantic stands for. The prospect of being part of taking this deeply American institution into a new medium in a new century is, for me, an English immigrant, a real honor and privilege. The blog retains its complete editorial independence, of course. You have that guarantee. But it will, I hope, be part of something bigger as well: a voice in a new conversation, dedicated to the American idea, of no party or clique, in pursuit of freedom, national progress, and honor.

Also, in pursuit of more pageviews.

Who knew David Bradley's The Atlantic could be all things to all hired hands. For Judith Miller, it was a means for her resurrection. For new EIC James Bennett, it was a means to escape the persiflage of the Times. And for June issue writers Charles Mann and James Fallows, it was a means to plug their relatives.

From "How Not To Travel in Japan," by Charles C. Mann, June 2006:

Renting cars in Japan is "not recommended for novices," in the terse phrase of Gateway to Japan, which I would describe as the best guidebook to the country that I have encountered if it hadn't been written by my sister-in-law June, and her ex-boyfriend. (The book is actually very good, though all the prices and some of the hotel and restaurant recommendations are outdated because June has been too busy with other things to produce a recent version.)

From "E-mail out of Every Plug," by James Fallows, June 2006:

Meeting that small increase in demand is disproportionately expensive, because the extra generating capacity is usually more polluting and less efficient than normal plants. "If you can reduce the peak even a little bit, you can reduce costs a lot, especially in some regions of the country," says Susan Tierney, a former utility regularoty in Massachusetts (and my sister).

Next month, look forward to the ubiquitous Clive Thomson plugging wifey Emily Nussbaum's book reviews.

A little reminder memo was sent around to the staffers at The Atlantic recently. In preparation for the summer months, they were reminded that Sue Lavigne would appreciate it if everyone could please keep their feet and other body parts from floppin' all over the place.

Our policy is intentionally vague and does not specifically exclude certain articles of clothing or types of shoes, but we ask that you consider the spirit of the policy and keep in mind that we work in a professional environment. For example: flip-flops, crop tops, tank tops, spaghetti-strap tops, and shorts (to name a few) are not appropriate.

Is it intentionally vague, we wonder, because of the seemingly very specific dress requirement? Good thing we work at home — lack of air conditioning has us stripped down to our skivvies, and we doubt Ms. Lavigne would appreciate that too much.

The Atlantic's D.C. Summer: Hot, Yes; Sultry, No [Gabriel Sherman, Media Mob]

• OMG, we don't believe it! There are even good restaurants in Brooklyn! [NYDN]

• What is Judith Miller writing about over at The Atlantic anyways? [NYO]

• Oh, Cargo. What will the Thursday Styles staffers do without you? Guess they'll have to settle for their GQ upgrade. (Come on, are you that shocked? They put freakin' Nick Lachey on the cover.) [Gawker]

• Elizabeth Spiers explains to NYU kids why hiring journalists is completely useless. For a blog, for a blog. [IWM]

• Ethan Hawke's office burned down. Now he has to find a new screening room for his next movie. [Gothamist]

• Will Graydon Carter leave Vanity Fair for Paramount? We doubt it — that means he would have to deal with even more celebrities. [NYDN]

• Walter Cronkite loves Jim Lehrer. Now, if only he could just remember what channel he's on. [Texas Monthly]

• Emily Davies just accidentally made all that shit up. [WWD]

• Too bad Duane Swierczynski's article didn't reach her sooner. Oh, yeah, and does this mean that journalism school is not pointless anymore? [PCP]

• Steven Colbert's word "truthiness" wins the American Dialect Society's "word of the year." Damn, we were so hoping it would be PopoZao! [Gothamist]

• So, Judith Miller doesn't really have time to talk right now. Unlike everyone else in this industry, she has reporting to do, so if you bitches could all just back the fuck off. [Observer]