The Atlantic's CEO says he talks to owner Laurene Powell Jobs all the time

Running a great magazine is hard. So is turning a money-losing magazine into a profit center.

Thompson has the advantage of a very deep-pocketed owner — Laurene Powell Jobs, who is worth a reported $15 billion — and a very talented editor. Under editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg's watch, the Atlantic has become a consistent source of must-read pieces.

But Thompson is also an atypical CEO: Prior to joining The Atlantic, he had a long career as an editor at outlets like Wired and The New Yorker. On top of that, he's a prolific creator who churns out books, podcasts, and, most recently, vertical videos for a very large audience.

Peter Kafka: Like lots of publishers, The Atlantic has a billionaire owner: Laurene Powell Jobs, one of the wealthiest women in the world. What does she want from you guys, and what is she giving you? Are you supposed to be a self-sustaining business? Do you ask her for money to expand?

You don't get to be that wealthy, and you don't maintain that wealth by not caring about how businesses are run.

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She cares a ton about American democracy, and she wants American democracy to work. We want to try to contribute to that. If you don't have good information, and people can't share facts, and they can't share stories, democracy is a little bit harder.

All the time. I talk to people in her office every day, and I talk to her fairly frequently.

You talk about things like, "What's your video strategy? Where are the best opportunities? What can you do more of? OK, is this actually working?" She's exceptionally perceptive and smart, and says, "Wait, wait a second, Nick. This thing you're doing here, is that actually really working? And is that the right person to be doing it?" Questions like that.

I prefer them paying us than not paying us, right? And many of the AI companies don't pay.

They've been great on that. We wanted to have a seat at the table as they talk through the role of journalism in their models. Absolutely. They've been amazing partners at that.

What you hear throughout the industry is that the bots are not sending much traffic to publishers. The click-through rates are very bad.