Boris Kachka Joins the ‘Atlantic’

The Atlantic has announced that veteran publishing and books reporter and editor Boris Kachka, most recently books editor at the Los Angeles Times, has joined as senior editor for books. The move comes after the Times let Kachka go in January—one of a reported 115 people (reportedly about 20% of the newsroom) laid off in one of the largest workforce reductions in the paper’s history.

“Boris is an elegant, experienced editor with deep knowledge of the literary landscape, a reporter’s instinct, and a curiosity for the big ideas that are preoccupying readers,” said Atlantic deputy editor Jane Yong Kim in announcing the hire. “Boris joins us at a time when our Books ambitions are growing immensely, and I can’t wait to see what he does here.”

In addition, the Atlantic also announced the move of senior editor Gal Beckerman to a staff writer position, where he will write about books. Kim said Beckerman “has shaped our daily Books coverage in myriad ways,” and in his new role will write on “an array of subjects—including books, of course.”

Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2020, Kachka was the books editor at New York magazine, where in 2018 he was charged with “tripling” books coverage in the print magazine and across its web verticals Vulture, the Cut, Daily Intelligencer, the Strategist, and Grub Street. He had been a contributing editor at the magazine for the previous 14 years.

Kachka is also the author of one of the great books about publishing, Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Simon & Schuster). Published in 2013, the book chronicled the rise of one of the country’s most storied publishers.

In a review, PW called the book a “juicy narrative” that chronicles “an epochal shift in the industry: from the old FSG, with its shabby offices, lewd banter, nonstop adulteries, dysfunctional quasi-familial relations between authors and the publisher, and febrile literary passions, to the new era of bland media conglomerates.”