 | |
| Type | Popular culture,entertainment,news,reviews,politics,progressive |
|---|---|
| Format | Internet |
| Owner | Paste Media Group |
| Editor-in-chief | Danette Chavez[1] |
| Founded | 1993; 33 years ago (1993) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Website | avclub |
The A.V. Club is anonline newspaper[2] and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements ofpop-culture media.The A.V. Club was created in 1993 as a supplement to itssatirical parent publication,The Onion. While it was a part ofThe Onion's 1996 website launch,The A.V. Club had minimal presence on the website at that point.
A 2005 website redesign placedThe A.V. Club in a more prominent position, allowing its online identity to grow. UnlikeThe Onion,The A.V. Club is not satirical.[3] The publication's name is a reference toaudiovisual (AV) clubs typical of American high schools.[4]
In 1993, five years after the founding ofThe Onion,Stephen Thompson, a student at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, launched an entertainment section of the newspaper.[5] Its name refers toaudio visual clubs offered by Americanhigh schools during the late 20th century for students to use and learn about equipment like speakers and projectors.[4]
AlongsideThe Onion's move fromMadison, Wisconsin, toNew York City in early 2001, theA.V. Club staff also left Madison to move intoThe Onion's satellite office inChicago. However, Thompson chose to stay in Madison, and in December 2004, Thompson was fired from his position as founding editor.[6][7]
In 1996, bothThe Onion andThe A.V. Club debuted on the Internet.[8]The A.V. Club was originally a subsection of the maintheonion.com domain.[9] The supplement was moved to its own domain name,theavclub.com,[10] before the 2005 acquisition of the shorteravclub.com domain name.[11] The latter change coincided with a redesign that incorporated reader comments and blog content. In 2006, the website shifted its content model to add content on a daily, rather than weekly, basis. Some contributors have become established as freelance writers and editors.[citation needed]
According to Sean Mills, then-president ofThe Onion, theA.V. Club website first reached more than 1 million unique visitors in October 2007.[12] In late 2009, the website was reported to have received more than 1.4 million unique visitors and 75,000 comments per month.[13]
At its peak, the print version ofThe A.V. Club was available in 17 different cities.[14] 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.[15]
On 9 December 2010, the websiteComicsComicsMag revealed that acapsule review for the bookGenius, Isolated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth had been fabricated. The book had not yet been published nor even completed by the authors.[16] After the review was removed, editor Keith Phipps posted an apology on the website, stating that the reporter being assigned to review the book could not locate a copy of it ("for obvious reasons"), so they fabricated it.[17] Leonard Pierce, the author of the review, was terminated from his freelance role with the website.[18]
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 ofThe A.V. Club. He said, "Onion, Inc. and I have come to a mutual parting of the ways."[19][20][21] On 2 April 2013, long-time film review editor and critic Scott Tobias stepped down as film editor ofThe A.V. Club. He said viaTwitter, "After 15 great years @theavclub, I step down as Film Editor next Friday."[22]
On 26 April 2013, long-time writersNathan 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.[23] Koski also said that she would continue to write freelance articles.[24] Writer Noel Murray announced he would be joining their new project, while continuing to contribute toThe A.V. Club in a reduced capacity.[23] On 30 May 2013, those six writers were announced as becoming part of the senior staff ofThe Dissolve, a film website run byPitchfork Media.[25]
In April and June 2014, senior staff writers Kyle Ryan, Sonia Saraiya, andEmily St. James left the website for positions atEntertainment Weekly,Salon, andVox Media, respectively.[26][27] In 2015, Ryan returned to Onion, Inc. for a position in development.[28] Following his departure fromThe Dissolve earlier that month, Nathan Rabin returned to write freelance for theA.V. Club website in May 2015.[29] He renewed his regular column "My World of Flops".The Dissolve folded in July 2015.[30]
In January 2016,Univision Communications acquired a 40% controlling stake in Onion Inc., the parent company ofThe A.V. Club.[31] Later that year, Univision also purchasedGawker Media and reorganized several of Gawker's sites into the newGizmodo Media Group, a division ofFusion Media Group.[32]
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, titledThe A.V. Club, based on the website.[33] The series, hosted by Teti, began airing onFusion on 16 March 2017 and ran for one season.[34] The series featured news, criticism, and discussions about various popular-culture topics and featured staff members from the website.
The site was subsequently migrated from Bulbs, an internalcontent management system developed by Onion Inc., to the Gawker-developedKinja platform.[35][36] Audience reviews hosted on the previous site were deleted and the Kinja comment system was heavily derided by the site's commenting community, leading to a sharp decline in activity.
In March 2018, employees announced they had unionized with theWriters Guild of America, East.[37] 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."[38] (ClickHole was acquired byCards Against Humanity in February 2020.[39]) The union was recognized on 20 April 2018 and reached a contract agreement with management on 20 December 2018.[40] 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."[41]
In July 2018, Univision announced it was looking for a buyer for the entire Gizmodo Group.[42] In April 2019, Gizmodo andThe Onion were sold toprivate-equity firm Great Hill Partners, which combined them into a new company namedG/O Media.[43][44] In July 2019, executive editor Laura M. Browning and managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog left.[45] In early 2020, formerPeople magazine andEntertainment Weekly editor Patrick Gomez was named editor-in-chief, and it was announced that the site was opening a Los Angeles bureau.[46] In August 2021, Yahoo! Entertainment and E! Online alum Scott Robson joined to lead the team.[47]
On 18 January 2022, the union representing staff at the website announced that all seven staff members based in Chicago had taken severance as opposed to accepting a mandatory move of work location to Los Angeles.[48] This predominantly affected the senior staff of the site and comprised the managing editor, film editor, TV editor, associate editor, senior writer, assistant editor, and editorial coordinator.[49] After this, the headquarters of the A.V. Club was moved toLos Angeles.[50]
In March 2024, it was reported that G/O Media had soldThe A.V. Club toPaste Media, who had previously bought the dormant G/O Media sitesJezebel andSplinter News for a relaunch.[44][51] This resulted inThe A.V. Club being completely separated fromThe Onion, with G/O Media sellingThe Onion to Global Tetrahedron the following month.[52] Two employees were laid off as part of the transition. Paste Media CEO Josh Jackson stressed thatPaste andThe A.V. Club would not be consolidated together and assured that the comments, briefly disabled by G/O Media, would be restored.[53]
In June 2024, various changes were announced, including that theA.V. Undercover web series would be revived after a 7-year hiatus, A.I. written articles during the G/O Media era would be removed, familiar writers would return (including Nathan Rabin andIgnatiy Vishnevetsky), and a subscriber program will be introduced.[54] In July 2024, Danette Chavez, a writer and editor forThe A.V. Club from 2015 to 2022, rejoined the website as editor-in-chief.[55]
Endless Mode, a spin-off ofPaste's games section that launched in July 2025,[56] merged withThe A.V. Club's games section just five months later in November, with Garrett Martin remaining editor of the section.[57][58]
In 2017,The A.V. Club won anEisner Award for "Best Comics-related Periodical/Journalism" (for works published in 2016).[59] The award went to writers Oliver Sava, Caitlin Rosberg, Shea Hennum, and Tegan O'Neil. The award also went to editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog.[60]
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, followed by annual rankings of television shows from 2010 onward. Additionally, decade-end lists were published for the 2000s and 2010s.[61][62]
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