Goldberg began his career as a police reporter for The Washington Post. He was the Middle East correspondent and former Washington correspondent of The New Yorker, and also wrote for The New York Times Magazine and New York Magazine. Goldberg, a former New York bureau chief of the Forward, is the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror.

Goldberg said he would approach his new job the way he would an article for The Atlantic: research it and speak to everyone on staff.

“The truth is I have general thoughts about The Atlantic, but I really want to dive in deeply and systematically,” he said. “I want to apply Atlantic values to the future of The Atlantic.” He said he would spend the next two months “figuring out the place.”

“I want to try and sit with everyone and really just interview them about what they do and what they want to do; treat it like a story for a couple of months,” he said.

Cohn in a statement said Goldberg’s career “exemplifies Atlantic editorial values: he’s smart, creative, resourceful, and iconoclastic—and has a sense of humor to go with his core commitment to fairness and integrity.”

“He takes over as editor in chief at a time when our digital and video teams are reaching more people and having more impact than ever before, and when the magazine cover is rightly seen by many as the most valuable real estate in American journalism,” Cohn said in the statement.

In a memo to The Atlantic’s staff, David Bradley, the chairman of Atlantic Media, said: “Jeff’s assignment is to make The Atlantic an unequaled talent destination for all our editorial disciplines. It is talent, not format, that has drawn us to Jeff.”

Goldberg emphasized the task ahead, as well. “The central challenge for any media company like The Atlantic is to constantly grow on all platforms and constantly evolve, but not sacrifice standards and quality,” he said in the interview. “To me, the scarcest resource in media is quality. That’s our chief competitive advantage. The trick is to grow without watering down quality.”

In a statement announcing the new appointment, The Atlantic said Goldberg will oversee editorial in print, digital, and video, while also providing guidance and counsel to the editorial teams at CityLab and the company’s events division, Atlantic Live.