 | |
| Type | Popular culture, entertainment, news, reviews, politics, progressive |
|---|---|
| Format | Internet |
| Owner(s) | G/O Media |
| Editor-in-chief | Patrick Gomez |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Website | avclub |
The A.V. Club is an American online newspaper[1] and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. The A.V. Club was created in 1993 as a supplement to its satirical parent publication, The Onion. While it was a part of The Onions 1996 website launch, The A.V. Club had minimal presence on the website at that point.
A 2005 website redesign placed The A.V. Club in a more prominent position, allowing its online identity to grow. Unlike The Onion, The A.V. Club and other sites owned by G/O Media are not satirical.[2] The publication's name is a reference to audiovisual (AV) clubs typical of American high schools.[3]
History
In 1993, five years after the founding of The Onion, Stephen Thompson, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, launched an entertainment section of the newspaper.
In 1996, both The Onion and The A.V. Club debuted on the Internet.[4]The A.V. Club was originally a subsection[5] of the main theonion.com domain name.
The supplement was moved to its own domain name, theavclub.com,[6] before the 2005 acquisition of the shorter avclub.com domain name.[7] The latter change coincided with a redesign that incorporated reader comments and blog content. In 2006, the website shifted its content model again to add content on a daily, rather than weekly, basis. Some contributors have become established as freelance writers and editors.
In December 2004, Stephen Thompson left his position as founding editor of The A.V. Club.[8]
According to Sean Mills, then-president of The Onion, the A.V. Club website first reached more than 1 million unique visitors in October 2007.[9] In late 2009, the website was reported to have received more than 1.4 million unique visitors and 75,000 comments per month.[10]
At its peak, the print version of The A.V. Club was available in 17 different cities.[11] Localized sections of the website were also maintained, with reviews and news relevant to specific cities. The print version and localized websites were gradually discontinued, and in December 2013, print publication ceased production in the last three markets.[12]
2012-2014 staff departures
On 13 December 2012, long-time writer and editor Keith Phipps, who oversaw the website after Stephen Thompson left, stepped down from his role as editor of The A.V. Club. He said, "Onion, Inc. and I have come to a mutual parting of the ways."[13][14][15]
On 2 April 2013, long-time film editor and critic Scott Tobias stepped down as film editor of The A.V. Club. He said via Twitter, "After 15 great years @theavclub, I step down as Film Editor next Friday."[16]
On 26 April 2013, long-time writers Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, and Genevieve Koski announced they would also be leaving the website to begin work on a new project with Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps.[17] Koski also said that she would continue to write freelance articles.[18] Writer Noel Murray announced he would be joining their new project, but would also continue to contribute to The A.V. Club in a reduced capacity.[17] On 30 May 2013, those six writers were announced as becoming part of the senior staff of The Dissolve, a film website run by Pitchfork Media.[19]
In April and June 2014, senior staff writers Kyle Ryan, Sonia Saraiya, and Emily VanDerWerff[20] left the website for positions at Entertainment Weekly, Salon, and Vox Media, respectively.[21][22] In 2015, Ryan returned to Onion, Inc. for a position in development.[23] Following his departure from The Dissolve earlier that month, Nathan Rabin returned to write freelance for the A.V. Club website in May 2015.[24] He renewed his regular column "My World of Flops". The Dissolve folded in July 2015.[25]
Television series
On 16 February 2017, The A.V. Club's editor-at-large, John Teti, posted an article on the website announcing the upcoming release of a television series, titled The A.V. Club, based on the website.[26] The series, hosted by Teti, began airing on Fusion on 16 March 2017 and ran for one season.[27] The series featured news, criticism, and discussions about various popular-culture topics and featured staff members from the website.
Move to Univision, then G/O Media
In January 2016, Univision Communications acquired "a 40 percent, controlling stake" in Onion Inc., the parent company of The A.V. Club.[28] Later that year, Univision also purchased Gawker Media and reorganized several of Gawker's sites into the new Gizmodo Media Group, a division of Fusion Media Group.[29]
In November 2017, due to the community's expanding membership and an increasing volume of original content, The A.V. Club offshoot website After Dark was switched from Disqus to a separate WordPress site and rebranded as The Avocado. The site was subsequently migrated from Bulbs, an internal content management system developed by Onion Inc. to the Gawker-developed Kinja platform.[30][31] It deleted the comment section and audience reviews hosted on the previous site. In July 2018, Univision announced it was looking for a buyer for the entire Gizmodo Group.[32]
In April 2019, Gizmodo and The Onion were sold to private equity firm Great Hill Partners, which combined them into a new company named G/O Media.[33] In July 2019, executive editor Laura M. Browning and managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog left.[34] In early 2020, former People magazine and Entertainment Weekly editor Patrick Gomez was to be named editor-in-chief, and the site was opening a Los Angeles bureau.[35]
Onion Inc. Union
In March 2018 the employees of the company announced they had unionized with the Writers Guild Of America, East.[36] The union comprises "all of the creative staffs at Onion Inc.: The A.V. Club, The Onion, ClickHole, The Takeout, Onion Labs, and Onion Inc.'s video and art departments."[37] (ClickHole was subsequently acquired by Cards Against Humanity in February 2020.[38]) The union was recognized on 20 April 2018[39] and reached a contract agreement with management on 20 December 2018.[39] The contract includes "annual pay increases, minimum pay grades, strong diversity and anti-harassment language, just cause, union security, editorial independence, intellectual property rights, and an end to permalancers."[40]
Controversy
On 9 December 2010, the website ComicsComicsMag revealed a capsule review for the book Genius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth had been fabricated. The book had not yet been published nor even completed by the authors.[41] After the review was removed, editor Keith Phipps posted an apology on the website, stating that the reporter assigned the review could not locate a copy of the book ("for obvious reasons"), so fabricated it.[42] Leonard Pierce, the author of the review, was terminated from his freelance role with the website.[43]
Books
- The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders (2002, ISBN 1-4000-4724-2) is a collection of 68 interviews featured in previous issues.
- Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists (2009, ISBN 1-4165-9473-6) is a combination of never-before-published lists and material already available on the A.V. Club website.
- My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep into the Heart of Cinematic Failure (2010, ISBN 1-4391-5312-4) consists of entries taken from the website's My Year of Flops column by Nathan Rabin, along with new material not previously available. It is the first A.V. Club release credited to a single author.
- Monsters Of The Week: The Complete Critical Companion To The X-Files (2018, ISBN 1-4197-3247-1) is a collection of the X-Files episode recaps written by A.V. Club contributor Zack Handlen and former A.V. Club TV editor Emily VanDerWerff. In addition to The A.V. Club recaps, the book includes X-Files cast and writer interviews, illustrations from Patrick Leger, and a foreword by X-Files creator Chris Carter.
Awards
In 2017, The A.V. Club won an Eisner Award for "Best Comics-related Periodical/Journalism" (for works published in 2016).[44] The award went to writers Oliver Sava, Caitlin Rosberg, Shea Hennum, and Tegan O'Neil. The award also went to editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog.[45]
A.V. Club year- and decade-end lists
Starting in 1999, only lists written by individual writers were published. Beginning in 2006, The A.V. Club began publishing website-consensus, year-end album and film rankings, together with lists created by individual writers. Additionally decade-end lists were published for the 2000s and 2010s.[46][47]
Annual rankings for television began in 2010.
Album of the Year
Film of the Year
Television Show of the Year
| Year | Show | Network | Nation | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Breaking Bad | AMC |  United States |
[78] |
| 2011 | Louie | FX | United States |
[79] |
| 2012 | Breaking Bad | AMC | United States |
[80] |
| 2013 | Enlightened | HBO | United States |
[81] |
| 2014 | Hannibal | NBC | United States |
[82] |
| 2015 | Mad Men | AMC | United States |
[83] |
| 2016 | The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story | FX | United States |
[84] |
| 2017 | The Good Place | NBC | United States |
[85] |
| 2018 | The Americans | FX | United States |
[86] |
| 2019 | Fleabag | Prime Video |  United Kingdom |
[87] |
| 2020 | I May Destroy You | HBO | United Kingdom |
[88] |
References
- ^ Castillo, Jay (14 December 2017). "This Photo Is The Perfect Example Of What Internet Will Look Like If Net Neutrality Loses". Inquisitr. Retrieved 2018.
- ^ "About Us". The A.V. Club. 1 January 1988. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ "About Us". The A.V. Club. 1 January 1988. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The Onion: America's Finest News Source". The Onion. 19 December 1996. Archived from the original on 31 December 1996. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ . 19 December 1996 https://web.archive.org/web/19961219015005/http://theonion.com:80/. Archived from the original on 19 December 1996. Retrieved 2018. Missing or empty
|title=(help)CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ . 30 September 2001 https://web.archive.org/web/19991127154002/http://www.theavclub.com:80/. Archived from the original on 27 November 1999. Retrieved 2018. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ^ "Home | The A.V. Club". 6 August 2005. Archived from the original on 6 August 2005. Retrieved 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
- ^ "Bio for Stephen Thompson, Editor, NPR Music". NPR. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ David Shankbone (24 November 2007). "An interview with 'America's Finest News Source'", Wikinews
- ^ Johnson, Steve (27 October 2009). "Onion's A.V. Club is building up its brand". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010.
- ^ Gilmer, Marcus (8 November 2013). "The Onion bids adieu to print". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 2014.
- ^ Ryan, Kyle. "The Onion & A.V. Club ending print publication next month". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2014.
- ^ Goodybyes & Hellos Untitled Keith Phipps Project, 13 December 2012
- ^ Keith Phipps is no longer editor of The A.V. Club The A.V. Club, 14 December 2012
- ^ Editor Keith Phipps Leaves The A.V. Club Criticwire, 13 December 2012
- ^ "Scott Tobias Leaves A.V. Club, Site Looking For a New Film Editor", Criticwire, 2 April 2013
- ^ a b An Update from the AV Club The AV Club 26 April 2013
- ^ @GenevieveKoski (26 April 2013). "To clarify: I'll still contribute as a freelancer whenever I can, but I am no longer an editor. So you can't blame me for mistakes anymore!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Introducing The Dissolve, A New Film Site". Pitchfork. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 2013.
- ^ VanDerWerff, Emily (3 June 2019). "On coming out as trans in Donald Trump's America". Vox. Archived from the original on 3 June 2019. Retrieved 2019.
- ^ Adams, Sam (9 June 2014). "A.V. Club Exodus Continues as Todd VanDerWerff Becomes Vox's First Culture Editor". Indiewire. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Bazilian, Emma (21 April 2014). "Matt Bean staffs up at Entertainment Weekly". Adweek. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Ryan, Kyle (16 March 2015). "I know it might sound strange, but I believe you'll be coming back before too long". CMYKyle: Kyle Ryan's Shameless Self-Promotion. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Rabin, Nathan (25 August 2015). "Nathan Rabin o The A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Phipps, Keith (8 July 2015). "The End". The Dissolve. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Teti, John (16 February 2017). "The A.V. Club will soon exist in TV show form". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ Hughes, William (15 March 2017). "The A.V. Club TV show debuts tomorrow night, on Fusion". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ Folkenflik, David (19 January 2016). "Area Satirical Publication The Onion Sold To Univision (Seriously)". NPR.
- ^ Villafañe, Veronica (22 September 2016). "Univision Rebrands Gawker Media As Gizmodo Media Group; Starts Translating Content For Univision.com". Forbes.
- ^ Mullin, Benjamin (16 June 2017). "Kinja, the publishing system at the heart of Gawker, lives on under Univision". Poynter.
- ^ Laura M. Browning and Sean O'Neal (23 August 2017). "Welcome (back) to The A.V. Club". The AV Club.
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- ^ Hayes, Dade (8 April 2019). "Univision Finalizes Sale Of Former Gawker Portfolio And The Onion To Private Equity Firm Great Hill Partners". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ Hays, Kali. "The Media Carousel: A roundup of who's been hired, fired or maybe just jumped ship in media land recently". Women's Wear Daily. PMC. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ "Patrick Gomez Named Editor-in-Chief, The A.V. Club, Reid To BDG Fashion Director". mediapost.com. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ "Staff of the satire website The Onion has unionized". AP NEWS. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ Club, The A. V. "Onion Inc. has unionized". News. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ "Cards Against Humanity Bought Clickhole". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ a b Onion Inc Union [@OnionIncUnion] (20 December 2018). "We're proud to announce that the Onion Inc Union has a contract! We voted unanimously to ratify our first contract as a union under @wgaeast. We're incredibly happy. t.co/YufzA6KpIk" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ "Onion Inc. Ratifies First Contract with the Writers Guild of America, East | Press Room". Writers Guild of America, East. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ "The Most Amazing Review of the Year". Comics Comics. Archived from the original on 11 December 2010. Retrieved 2010.
- ^ "An apology from The A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2010.
- ^ Kaufman, Rachel. "AV Club Writer Loses Gig After Faking Review". Adweek. Retrieved 2016.
- ^ "Awards: 2010-Present". Comic-Con. San Diego Comic Convention. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ Rife, Katie. "Holy crap, The A.V. Club won an Eisner Award". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ "Best Of 2010 S - Pop culture news, movie, TV, music and gaming reviews". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ "The best films of the '00s". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ Bahn, Christopher. "Best Music Of 2006 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Bahn, Christopher. "The best music of 2007 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The best music of 2008 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The top 25 albums of 2009 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Heller, Jason. "The best music of 2010 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Eakin, Marah. "The best music of 2011 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The best music of 2012 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Adams, Erik. "The 23 best albums of 2013 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Anthony, David. "The 20 best albums of 2014 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The 15 best albums of 2015". Avclub.com. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best albums of 2016". Avclub.com. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 2016.
- ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best albums of 2017". The A.V. Club. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best albums of 2018". The A.V. Club. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 2018.
- ^ "The 20 best albums of 2019". The A.V. Club. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 2019.
- ^ "The 20 best albums of 2020". The A.V. Club. 15 December 2020. Retrieved 2020.
- ^ Murray, Noel. "The Year In Film 2006 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Murray, Noel. "The Year In Film 2007 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Murray, Noel; Phipps, Keith; Rabin, Nathan; Robinson, Tasha; Tobias, Scott. "The year in film 2008 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Murray, Noel. "The year in film 2009 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Murray, Noel. "The best films of 2010 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Adams, Sam. "Best films of 2011 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Adams, Sam. "The best films of 2012 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Adams, Sam. "The best films of 2013 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The 20 best movies of 2014 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The 20 best films of 2015". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The 20 best films of 2016". Avclub.com. 19 December 2015.
- ^ "The 20 best films of 2017". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ "The best films of 2018". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2018.
- ^ "The best films of 2019". The A.V. Club. 16 December 2019.
- ^ "The best films of 2020". The A.V. Club. 17 December 2020.
- ^ Alston, Joshua. "The 25 best television series of 2010 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "Best TV of 2011 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The best TV of 2012 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ VanDerWerff, Emily. "Enlightened was the best TV show of 2013 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ Adams, Erik. "The best TV shows of 2014 (part 2) · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The best TV of 2015, part 2". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2015.
- ^ "The best TV of 2016, part 2". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2016.
- ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best TV shows of 2017". The A.V. Club. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 2017.
- ^ "The best TV of 2018". The A.V. Club. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 2018.
- ^ "The 25 best TV shows of 2019". The A.V. Club. 9 December 2019. Retrieved 2019.
- ^ "The 25 best TV shows of 2020". The A.V. Club. 14 December 2020. Retrieved 2020.
External links
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