The Atlantic was never a newspaper - it was always a magazine.

I'm not sure when the colloquial definition of magazine and newspaper/journalism began merging, but The Atlantic, New Yorker, and Harper's were always magazines that were critique and op-ed driven.

Here's a good article explaining the difference between newspapers, magazines, journals, and other forms of nonfiction [0]

[0] - https://libanswers.memphis.edu/faq/34544

Ian Bogost is more of an essayist than a journalist. His magnum opus is his analysis of the blue shell in Mario Kart. https://bogost.com/writing/blue-shell-discontents/