The Atlantic

How The Atlantic Reduced Time Spent on Data Deletions by 95% with Teleskope

100%

Data visibility across internal and third-party systems

97%

Reduction in cost per data deletion

95%

Reduction in time spent on data deletions

"Teleskope was the only solution that did everything we needed, from data deletions to vendor coordination and PII detection. The platform has become a staple across our data security workflows."

Aline Rollenhagen

The Atlantic

The Atlantic is one of America’s oldest and most respected magazines and publishers, known for its long-form analysis on politics, culture, technology, and more. With over a century of history and notable awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), The Atlantic has become synonymous with thoughtful, high-quality journalism.

Challenges

Continuous Data Deletion Drained Bandwidth for Value-Creating Work

The Atlantic’s data team faced a significant time drain from manual data deletion requests, requiring hours each week for querying records and coordinating with third-party vendors. As deletion requests rose, this work created operational friction, pulling the team away from higher-value initiatives.

Executive Director Aline Rollenhagen needed a scalable solution. Rather than building an in-house capability that would only grow more complex over time, she looked for a partner that could automate the workflow end-to-end — across both internal systems and external vendors — with minimal engineering lift.

“Our data team was spending a significant amount of time executing deletions, which took them away from other valuable work. We needed a solution that would streamline our data security workflows at scale.” — Aline Rollenhagen, Executive Director of Data, The Atlantic

Solutions

End-to-End Data Deletion Workflows With Minimal Internal Lift

Teleskope delivered an automated, end-to-end deletion workflow tailored to The Atlantic’s environment. The platform uses AI-powered data discovery to automatically identify PII across cloud and on-premises systems, and coordinates downstream actions with third-party vendors so the data team isn’t in the middle of every request.

“Before, executing a single deletion request was inefficient. Now, Teleskope only queries what’s necessary; it’s more precise, faster, and cheaper.” — Aline Rollenhagen

Mid-deployment, The Atlantic began migrating to a new subscription management system that Teleskope didn’t yet support. The Teleskope team built a custom connector from scratch with no delay, keeping the deletion workflow continuous through the migration.

“We were in the middle of a major migration to a new subscription system, and Teleskope didn’t have a connector for it yet. We flagged it during onboarding, and they just built one from scratch. No delays, no back-and-forth. It felt like working with an extension of our own team.” — Aline Rollenhagen

Results

Enhanced Data Security, Reduced Manual Work, and More Bandwidth for Value-Creating Tasks

The Atlantic transformed its deletion process into a unified, automated workflow with measurable improvements across time, cost, and visibility:

95% reduction in time spent on data deletions by the data team
100% data visibility across internal and third-party systems
97% reduction in cost per data deletion

With manual coordination eliminated, the data team has reclaimed bandwidth for value-creating work. The Atlantic is now exploring the next step: removing the final manual touchpoint by letting upstream systems trigger deletions directly through Teleskope’s API.

“We’ve thought about going even further, using Teleskope to remove the need for any human involvement at all. We’re eager to work with Teleskope to push our internal efficiencies even further.” — Aline Rollenhagen

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