National Journal Goes Back to Bradley's Consulting Roots

The significant transitions underway at National Journal, the long-running political weekly owned by David Bradley and Atlantic Media, are driven in part by Bradley's belief that he missed the arrival of a new business model in town, the win-the-morning competition driven by Politico. And as the magazine has bought out many staffers, it makes sense that some of the new people coming into the company would join National Journal from a field where Bradley saw success in the past: consulting (Bradley founded both the Advisory Board Company and the Corporate Executive Board). Fishbowl DC mentioned yesterday that the company's brought a new marketing director on board.

But the company also just hired Jean Ellen Cowgill, an analyst at McKinsey & Company, to work on strategy and business development, and among her tasks will be developing "new business and product lines." Atlantic Media's had some success in this area in recent years: the Atlantic Wire was the result of an internal product development process, and the company had plans to launch a business publication, though it's unclear whether those plans will be realized. As the company seeks to complete the major remake of National Journal, it'll be revealing to see what they think are strategic new entries into the market.