Marc Ambinder has joined The Week as an editor-at-large and has launched his very own blog. Topics covered on “The Compass,” according to Ambinder, will be varied. He says he’ll write about politics, technology, culture, and more.

Smartly though, Ambinder says “I am not going to blog about everything. And I am going to stick to the rule I made for myself awhile ago: If I don’t think I have something interesting to say, or something valuable to add, I am not going to force anything.”

“I have a bunch of irons in the fire, and I anticipate that these experiences will help me look at the world with different lenses,” explains Ambinder.

Marc Ambinder is joining GQ as a Contributing Editor. Ambinder tweeted that he would be writing for the magazine and its politics blog, Death Race 2012.

Death Race 2012 launched on January 3, and covers the upcoming presidential election.

Marc Ambinder, a White House Correspondent for the National Journal and Contributing Editor for The Atlantic, is taking “a pause from daily journalism” and departing Atlantic Media to work on other projects. Ambinder tweeted earlier, “So I’m taking a bit of a pause from daily journalism, leaving the superlative @nationaljournal on Dec 31. It’s all good. & I’ll still Tweet.”

Politico reports that Ron Fournier, the Editor-in-Chief of the National Journal, wrote in a memo that he was hopeful Ambinder would return one day.

“I walked away from journalism once and came back,” said Fournier. “It’s my hope that Marc returns to the cause soon, but that is selfish of me. What we all really want is for Marc and his family to be healthy and happy regardless of the path he chooses.”

All of the (op-ed) stars were out last night to celebrate the launch of Atlantic Wire, the opinion aggregating sister site to TheAtlantic.com.

Writers for The Atlantic and TheAtlantic.com like Corby Kummer, Marc Ambinder, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Megan McArdle sipped champagne or checked out the incredible view from the balcony at The Glass Houses on the top floor of the Chelsea Arts Tower, as slides of the Atlantic 50 streamed above the bar.

Atlantic Consumer Media chair David Bradley, president Justin Smith and editor James Bennet later said a few words for the crowd, which included The New York Times‘s Frank Rich and David Carr, Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol from Mediaite.com and AOL DailyFinance‘s Jeff Bercovici.

“We like to fight with each other,” Bennet said of the impetus behind launching Atlantic Wire, which gathers some of the best opinions on the biggest topics of the day in one place.

Bradley, who leads arguably one of the few media companies that is growing despite the recession, offered some advice to would-be media moguls. “Before you own a media company, you should own a company that does well,” he said, noting how his previous experience in business allowed him to effectively operate Atlantic Consumer Media.

Well he certainly knows how to put on a party.

More photos after the jump

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Michael Calderone has a nice interview up with the New York Times‘ 29 year old incoming columnist Ross Douthat. Some highlights:

• “Those of us who have known him for a while have joked that his destiny was to be the conservative on The New York Times editorial page,” said associate editor Marc Ambinder.

• Douthat, who once went skinny-dipping with William F. Buckley, will be facing an audience more likely to share political views with Frank Rich than with the late National Review founder. “I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by liberals,” Douthat said, “so hopefully it won’t be a difficult adjustment.”

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The Atlantic, the 150 year old magazine that has managed to make itself relevant online, has a new look! The Atlantic‘s online relevance is, in our opinion, largely due to its line-up of stellar bloggers (our affinity for Andrew Sullivan is no secret, however, Marc Ambinder is also a staple and anyone not already reading Ta-Nahisi Coates should begin immediately), and apparenly as part of the redesign each has been assigned their own color (Andrew has a shade of blue, Megan McArdle green, Ta-Nehisi silver).

In a post on the homepage editor James Bennet explained to readers what other changes they may encounter at both the site and the print magazine.

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TheAtlantic.com has announced that Ta-Nehisi Coates, 32, will be joining the website’s blogging masthead. Coates has previously held positions as Time and the Village Voice. Earlier this year he penned and piece for The Atlantic titled “‘This Is How We Lost to the White Man’” about Bill Cosby’s Black Conservatism, as well, he published his childhood memoir The Beautiful Struggle.

TheAtlantic.com has managed to establish a strong online presence over the past year or so, beginning with Andrew Sullivan who moved there after only a year with Time. The line-up now includes Ross Douthat, Megan McArdle, Jeffery Goldberg, Clive Crook, James Fallows, and campaign must-read Marc Ambinder. Coates ostensibly fills the slot left vacant by Matt Yglesias who departed the site this week for the Center for American Progress.