I definitely noticed that as well. It could be a self-propagating cycle? Maybe people see an article from The Atlantic, then while they're there they find another article and post that? The more people post articles from The Atlantic, the more people who go and read other articles there and go on to post them here. And personally, I think it is a pretty good publication. They have some interesting stories and they are generally well written.

The Atlantic was banned from reddit for spamming last year. Wouldn't surprise me if they were doing the same BS here.

Well, the submitter of this article has a 5 year old account. They frequently submit news articles from a variety of sources, and are also an active commenter. (Though, they do seem to like posting quotes.)

The other two atlantic articles on the front page are from 2-3 year old accounts that likewise post a lot of pieces from various newspapers.

You're welcome to dig through their posting history for a conspiracy, but it's not jumping out at me.

I like the fact that you investigated this before posting rather then being "ra ra conspiracy" like the other posters.

It's not a conspiracy, it's a well-known and common business practice for content companies.

I, at least, meant conspiracy in the more literal sense: people coordinating in secret.

Doesn't have to be new accounts. "Pay to post" is a regular occurrence and a lucrative side business for people on high-traffic, user-curated content sites like Reddit and Digg.

Doesn't necessarily have to be the poster, the upvoters are the ones that get it on the front page.

Hmm, you know, my comment defending the Atlantic posters actually does have a weird amount of upvotes. (Not a joke -- it's at +37 right now, which seems high given its placement and late timing in the thread.)

Maybe its because The Atlantic consistently produces high quality content that deserves to be on the HN front page.