A year after The Atlantic.com completed its print and digital makeover, the online news mag is considering some acquisitions to spur growth. I spoke with Justin Smith, president Atlantic Consumer Media, who said that there are no active deals in the works, but confirmed tips we’ve heard that David Bradley, the owner of the Atlantic Media Company, is planning to buy or invest in content sites that can complement TheAtlantic.com’s coverage.

“We’ve moved away from the general nature of commentary on the site and have been looking to do more breaking news, like the item we ran on Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff e-mails,” Smith told me. “And we’ve been able to prove that long-form journalism can work on the web, as long as you have a blockbuster piece. For example, Nicholas Carr’s cover story, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, from last July, got 1 million pageviews. More recently, a piece on the economic collapse, The Quiet Coup, got 1.5 million pageviews in just five days.” More after the jump.

—Branching out verticals: When it comes to fitting in new sites, whether through acquisitions, partnerships or creating new verticals in-house, Smith said that the content will revolve around “individual voices.” The site recently expanded its food coverage into a vertical surrounding the writing of Atlantic Monthly epicurean Corby Kummer. It also launched two verticals this year: In January the site started its Politics channel around Marc Ambinder, and TheAtlantic.com just unveiled The Atlantic’s Business that’s tied to columnist Megan McArdle. Other areas TheAtlantic.com plans to explore for its vertical strategy include culture, tech and energy/environment/climate-related issues. Smith: “The Atlantic  has always been a brand about showcasing great writers and great arguments. And so its natural for our site and its channels to serve as more of a vessel for other voices.” 

—Applications for apps: In addition to more verticals, Bradley’s Atlantic Innovation Center has asked for applications from “digital media talent” to apply to become innovation fellows. The mag received about 500 applications, which were whittled down to about nine selected fellows, who are now working to develop new applications. The company expects a fuller mobile strategy to sharpen its focus throughout this year, Smith said.

—No regrets on pay-wall takedown: In addition to last year’s redesign, in January 2008, TheAtlantic.com took down its paywall. While begining to charge for content is being hotly debated among newspapers, which are in tougher shape than magazines, mag publishers, too, have to consider how to cope with the slowing growth of online advertising. For the moment at least, Smith insists that while nothing is ever off the table, there is no real consideration being given to bringing back paid content on the site. “We’re seeing declines in print advertising like every one else,” Smith said. “But our digital gains are making it flat over all. And all things considered, that’s a pretty good position to be in right now.” Citing internal traffic number from Omniture, TheAtlantic.com had an average of 500,000 uniques 18 months ago and since October, it has been tracking between around 4 million uniques, Smith said. Comscore’s numbers tell a different story: it finds that February traffic has declined roughly 50 percent year-over-year to 314,000 uniques; an Atlantic rep disputes the comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) numbes. Smith insisted that the site was sticking with its basic traffic strategy. “We don’t have have a single traffic deal… no syndication deals, we never spent money on building our audience. We’re banking on the sheer relevance of our content to drive views and visitors and we see that it’s working.”

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