The Atlantic has bumped Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg up to executive producer of Atlantic video. Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg has been with The Atlantic since 2011, most recently as a senior associate editor.

In a memo announcing the move, Bob Cohn, editor of Atlantic Digital, said Atlantic video — which Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg will now oversee — is a point of emphasis. As a result, “We’ll be hiring for this team during the spring and summer,” wrote Cohn.

Cohn’s full note is below.

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The Atlantic has named Ann Hulbert its new books and culture editor. Hulbert is a published author and currently a Spencer Fellow at Columbia’s Journalism School. Hulbert wrote for The New Republic for over a decade and was a contributor to Slate when it launched. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker.

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Nate Thayer, a veteran journalist, posted on his blog an email exchange between The Atlantic’s global editor — Olga Khazan — and himself, that is guaranteed to frustrate you if you’ve ever freelanced. Thankfully, Thayer deals with the emails in the best way possible.

It began with Khazan emailing Thayer to ask about republishing something he had written on The Atlantic. This part is great. Any freelancer would be ecstatic to have such a respected publication (or any publication, really) contact them. Typically freelancers are the ones doing the asking. But as the emails went back and forth, things quickly got depressing.

When Thayer asked for specifics about the piece, Khazan wrote that The Atlantic couldn’t pay Thayer for his work, “but we do reach 13 million readers a month.” Ah, the old, “We can’t pay you, but think of the exposure you’ll get as we make money off of your piece!” What a fantastic deal.

To his credit, Thayer shot back a brilliant response:

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David Minkin has been named The Atlantic’s associate publisher of sales strategy and operations, a new role at the company. Minkin was the co-founder and publisher of Breaking Media, which operates sites like Dealbreaker.com and Fashionista.com.

“Having followed David’s career for years, I am thrilled we were able to design a senior position that pairs his entrepreneurial spirit, passion for data and analytics, and marketing creativity with The Atlantic’s industry-leading sales and marketing team,” said The Atlantic’s president, M. Scott Havens, in a statement.

“It’s incredibly exciting to work with Scott and the fantastic team he’s assembled here as we continue to revolutionize what it means to be a media business in the 21st century,” added Hinkin.

Last night The Atlantic posted a sponsored article on Scientology titled “David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year.” It was exactly what it sounds like — an celebratory ad for Scientology, complete with overwhelmingly positive comments from readers.

The article was also formatted exactly like any other Atlantic piece — save “sponsor content” written at the top — so people started questioning the ethics of it. And just as soon as people started criticizing the article, the Atlantic yanked the piece (here is a Google cache version of it).

As Poynter notes, Jay Lauf, publisher of The Atlantic, recently spoke in a positive way about sponsored content. “A lot of people worry about crossing editorial and advertising lines, but I think it respects readers more… It’s saying, ‘You know what you’re interested in.’ It’s more respectful of the reader that way.”

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The Atlantic just wrapped up a great year. The magazine was profitable for the third consecutive year, and for the first time, digital ad revenue took up the majority (59 percent) of overall ad revenue. That success has its execs thinking about taking readers back in time.

According to Forbes, The Atlantic will experiment with online pay models this year. Scott Havens, president of The Atlantic, admitted that paid content was going to be “a big area of focus for us,” but then did his best to be as vague as humanly possible by telling Forbes, “It’s not definitely happening, but it’s definitely part of the mix.”

One payment method allegedly being discussed is the trusted metered wall, like the New York Times and Andrew Sullivan are using.

If The Atlantic does launch a pay model it will be a bit of a throwback to the old days. It was only in 2008 that its site became completely free.

The Atlantic has chosen Battle at the End of Eden to be its first original ebook publication. The book, by Amanda Martinez, examines how conservationists must sometimes go to extreme measures to keep some of the world’s rarest animals from dying.

It sounds good, right? Here’s Scott Stossel, editor of The Atlantic, singing its praises:

As we explore new vehicles for delivering the kinds of rich, deeply reported stories that define The Atlantic, I’m incredibly proud that Battle at the End of Eden marks our first foray into original ebook publishing. Amanda’s piece, which she reported over many months from the Galápagos Islands and along the coast of California, sets a high bar for the ‘AtlanticSingles’ to come in the months and years ahead.

Battle at the End of Eden is available only on the Kindle, for $0.99.

The voting is over, and the winner of the first FishbowlNY Magazine Cover of The Year is The Atlantic. It was a virtual tie between New York (who we thought would win) and its cover of a post-Sandy Manhattan and The Atlantic right up until the end. However, The Atlantic ended up with 41 percent of the vote, while New York grabbed 34 percent. Those two covers pretty much blew away the competition, as the next closest was ESPN The Magazine, with 9.9 percent of the vote.

Congrats to the Atlantic, and to Darhil Crooks, the magazine’s creative director. The winning cover was the first Atlantic issue with Crooks’ imprint, and it obviously made an impact on readers.

Thanks to everyone who voted in our poll. You are all — in your own special way — the wind beneath FishbowlNY’s wings.

The winner’s of Adweek’s annual Hot List are now available online, but here’s a quick summary of the print category: Condé Nast and The Atlantic are doing good things.

Six Condé magazines took home awards — such as GQ getting the “Hottest Magazine for Men” nod and Bon Appétit taking the “Favorite Destination for Foodies” honor — the most of any big publishing house. Other Condé titles taking home Hot List awards include Condé Nast Traveler, Self, Golf Digest and Allure.

The Atlantic was the other big winner. It was named the “Best Magazine to be Seen Reading on The Subway” and Jay Lauf and James Bennet were named publisher and editor of the year, respectively.

For the complete Hot List winners, click through.

[Image: Nick Mrozowski/Alfred Maskeroni]

October was a good month for The Atlantic’s web properties. The Atlantic’s online counterpart, theatlantic.com, and The Atlantic Wire, both set all-time high traffic marks, at 12.5 million and four million unique visitors, respectively. The Atlantic Cities also roped in 917,000 visitors, good for its second-best month.

Ad sales at the sites were also up. The previous high (no number was given by The Atlantic) was set in October 2011, but ad revenue was 28 percent better this October.

“Our writers and editors did a terrific job in October,” said Bob Cohn, editor-in-chief of Atlantic Digital, in a statement. “Analysis and commentary on The Atlantic, smart news curation on The Atlantic Wire, data and trends about urban life on The Atlantic Cities — our sites demonstrate there is an appetite among readers for intelligence, creativity, speed, and wit. Thanks to our hard-working editorial, tech, and product teams, we’ve now doubled our audience over the last 16 months.”