Bloomberg Media acquires CityLab as The Atlantic slashes staff

Following news earlier this week announcing the sale of urban design innovation vertical CityLab to Bloomberg Media by The Atlantic, news reports today indicate that the publication's entire staff has been laid off. 

Nieman Lab reports that the acquisition is the first for Bloomberg Media in over a decade, following its purchase of BusinessWeek in 2009. The sale comes as Bloomberg Media founder and 90% owner Michael Bloomberg undertakes a presidential campaign. Bloomberg has stepped away from day-to-day operations at the company and has vowed to either sell or enter the company into a "blind trust" should he win the presidential election. 

Regarding the sale, Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith tells Adweek, "What’s really exciting about the addition to CityLab to our portfolio is that it can be introduced into that model as a new multi-platform, global sub-brand that is super-serving a niche that we care about a lot, that we think is very valuable." 

As part of the transaction, The...