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The A.V. Club

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The A.V. Club
TypePopular culture, entertainment, news, reviews, politics, progressive
FormatInternet
Owner(s)G/O Media
Editor-in-chiefPatrick Gomez
Founded1993; 31 years ago (1993)
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois, U.S.
Websiteavclub.com

The A.V. Club is an 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 Onion's 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 its parent publication, The A.V. Club is 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 were debuted on the Internet.[4] The A.V. Club was originally a sub-section[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 senior staff departures

On December 13, 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 April 2, 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 April 26, 2013, long-time writers Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, and Genevieve Koski announced that 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 May 30, 2013, it was announced that those six writers would be 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 AV 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 February 16, 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 and 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, re-branded 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 has deleted the comment section and audience reviews hosted on the previous site. In July of 2018, Univision announced they were 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, it was announced that former People magazine and Entertainment Weekly editor Patrick Gomez had been named editor-in-chief and the site was opening a Los Angeles bureau.[35]

Controversy

On December 9, 2010, the website ComicsComicsMag revealed that 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.[36] 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") and so fabricated it.[37] Leonard Pierce, the author of the review, was terminated from his freelance role with the website.[38]

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.

Awards

In 2017 The A.V. Club won an Eisner Award for "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism" (for works published in 2016).[39] The award went to writers Oliver Sava, Caitlin Rosberg, Shea Hennum, and Tegan O’Neil, and editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog.[40]

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.[41][42]

Annual rankings for television began in 2010.

Album of the Year

Year Artist Album Nation Source
2006 The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America  United States [43]
2007 Arcade Fire Neon Bible  Canada [44]
2008 TV on the Radio Dear Science  United States [45]
2009 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix  France [46]
2010 Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  United States [47]
2011 Wye Oak Civilian  United States [48]
2012 Frank Ocean Channel Orange  United States [49]
2013 Kanye West Yeezus  United States [50]
2014 Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire for No Witness  United States [51]
2015 Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly  United States [52]
2016 David Bowie Blackstar  United Kingdom [53]
2017 Kendrick Lamar DAMN.  United States [54]
2018 Beach House 7  United States [55]
2019 FKA Twigs Magdalene  United Kingdom [56]

Film of the Year

Year Director Film Nation Source
2006 Alfonso Cuarón Children of Men  United States
 United Kingdom
 Mexico		 [57]
2007 Joel and Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men  United States [58]
2008 Andrew Stanton WALL-E  United States [59]
2009 Kathryn Bigelow The Hurt Locker  United States
 Canada
 France		 [60]
2010 Debra Granik Winter's Bone  United States [61]
2011 Terrence Malick The Tree of Life  United States [62]
2012 Paul Thomas Anderson The Master  United States [63]
2013 Richard Linklater Before Midnight  United States [64]
2014 Richard Linklater Boyhood  United States [65]
2015 George Miller Mad Max: Fury Road  Australia
 United States		 [66]
2016 Kenneth Lonergan Manchester by the Sea  United States [67]
2017 Sean Baker The Florida Project  United States [68]
2018 Lee Chang-dong Burning  South Korea [69]
2019 Martin Scorsese The Irishman  United States [70]

Television Show of the Year

Year Show Network Nation Source
2010 Breaking Bad AMC  United States [71]
2011 Louie FX  United States [72]
2012 Breaking Bad AMC  United States [73]
2013 Enlightened HBO  United States [74]
2014 Hannibal NBC  United States [75]
2015 Mad Men AMC  United States [76]
2016 The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story FX  United States [77]
2017 The Good Place NBC  United States [78]
2018 The Americans FX  United States [79]
2019 Fleabag Prime Video  United Kingdom [80]

References

  1. ^ Castillo, Jay (14 December 2017). "This Photo Is The Perfect Example Of What Internet Will Look Like If Net Neutrality Loses". Inquisitr. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  2. ^ "About Us". The A.V. Club. 1 January 1988. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  3. ^ "About Us". The A.V. Club. 1 January 1988. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  4. ^ "The Onion: America's Finest News Source". The Onion. 19 December 1996. Archived from the original on 31 December 1996. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Wayback Machine". 19 December 1996. Archived from the original on 19 December 1996. Retrieved 19 July 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ "Wayback Machine". 30 September 2001. Archived from the original on 27 November 1999. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  7. ^ "Home | The A.V. Club". 6 August 2005. Archived from the original on 6 August 2005. Retrieved 13 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ "Bio for Stephen Thompson, Editor, NPR Music". Npr.org. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  9. ^ David Shankbone (24 November 2007). "An interview with 'America's Finest News Source'", Wikinews
  10. ^ Steve Johnson (27 October 2009). "Onion's A.V. Club is building up its brand". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  11. ^ Gilmer, Marcus (8 November 2013). "The Onion bids adieu to print". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  12. ^ Ryan, Kyle. "The Onion & A.V. Club ending print publication next month". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  13. ^ Goodybyes & Hellos Untitled Keith Phipps Project, December 13, 2012
  14. ^ Keith Phipps is no longer editor of The A.V. Club The A.V. Club, December 14, 2012
  15. ^ Editor Keith Phipps Leaves The A.V. Club Criticwire, December 13, 2012
  16. ^ "Scott Tobias Leaves A.V. Club, Site Looking For a New Film Editor", Criticwire, April 2, 2013
  17. ^ a b An Update from the AV Club The AV Club April 26, 2013
  18. ^ @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.
  19. ^ "Introducing The Dissolve, A New Film Site". Pitchfork. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  20. ^ 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 24 June 2019.
  21. ^ Adams, Sam (9 June 2014). "A.V. Club Exodus Continues as Todd VanDerWerff Becomes Vox's First Culture Editor". Indiewire. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  22. ^ Bazilian, Emma (21 April 2014). "Matt Bean staffs up at Entertainment Weekly". Adweek. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  23. ^ 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 25 August 2015.
  24. ^ Rabin, Nathan (25 August 2015). "Nathan Rabin • The A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  25. ^ Phipps, Keith (8 July 2015). "The End". The Dissolve. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  26. ^ Teti, John (16 February 2017). "The A.V. Club will soon exist in TV show form". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  27. ^ Hughes, William (15 March 2017). "The A.V. Club TV show debuts tomorrow night, on Fusion". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  28. ^ David Folkenflik (19 January 2016). "Area Satirical Publication The Onion Sold To Univision (Seriously)". NPR.
  29. ^ Veronica Villafañe (22 September 2016). "Univision Rebrands Gawker Media As Gizmodo Media Group; Starts Translating Content For Univision.com". Forbes.
  30. ^ Benjamin Mullin (16 June 2017). "Kinja, the publishing system at the heart of Gawker, lives on under Univision". Poynter.
  31. ^ Laura M. Browning and Sean O'Neal (23 August 2017). "Welcome (back) to The A.V. Club". The AV Club.
  32. ^ [1]
  33. ^ Hayes, Dade; Hayes, Dade (8 April 2019). "Univision Finalizes Sale Of Former Gawker Portfolio And The Onion To Private Equity Firm Great Hill Partners". Deadline. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  34. ^ Hays, Kali. "The Media Carousel: A roundup of who's been hired, fired or maybe just jumped ship in media land recently". WWD. PMC. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  35. ^ "Patrick Gomez Named Editor-in-Chief, The A.V. Club, Reid To BDG Fashion Director". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  36. ^ "The Most Amazing Review of the Year". Comics Comics. Archived from the original on 11 December 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  37. ^ "An apology from The A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  38. ^ Kaufman, Rachel. "AV Club Writer Loses Gig After Faking Review". Adweek. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  39. ^ "Awards: 2010-Present". Comic-Con. San Diego Comic Convention. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  40. ^ Rife, Katie. "Holy crap, The A.V. Club won an Eisner Award". The A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  41. ^ "Best Of 2010 S - Pop culture news, movie, TV, music and gaming reviews". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  42. ^ "The best films of the '00s". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  43. ^ Bahn, Christopher. "Best Music Of 2006 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  44. ^ Bahn, Christopher. "The best music of 2007 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  45. ^ "The best music of 2008 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  46. ^ "The top 25 albums of 2009 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  47. ^ Heller, Jason. "The best music of 2010 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  48. ^ Eakin, Marah. "The best music of 2011 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  49. ^ "The best music of 2012 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  50. ^ Adams, Erik. "The 23 best albums of 2013 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  51. ^ Anthony, David. "The 20 best albums of 2014 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  52. ^ "The 15 best albums of 2015". Avclub.com. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  53. ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best albums of 2016". Avclub.com. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  54. ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best albums of 2017". The A.V. Club. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  55. ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best albums of 2018". The A.V. Club. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  56. ^ "The 20 best albums of 2019". The A.V. Club. 19 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  57. ^ Murray, Noel. "The Year In Film 2006 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  58. ^ Murray, Noel. "The Year In Film 2007 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  59. ^ Murray, Noel; Phipps, Keith; Rabin, Nathan; Robinson, Tasha; Tobias, Scott. "The year in film 2008 · Article · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  60. ^ Murray, Noel. "The year in film 2009 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  61. ^ Murray, Noel. "The best films of 2010 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  62. ^ Adams, Sam. "Best films of 2011 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  63. ^ Adams, Sam. "The best films of 2012 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  64. ^ Adams, Sam. "The best films of 2013 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  65. ^ "The 20 best movies of 2014 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  66. ^ "The 20 best films of 2015". Avclub.com. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  67. ^ "The 20 best films of 2016". Avclub.com. 19 December 2015.
  68. ^ "The 20 best films of 2017". Avclub.com. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
  69. ^ "The best films of 2018". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  70. ^ "The best films of 2019". The A.V. Club. 16 December 2018.
  71. ^ Alston, Joshua. "The 25 best television series of 2010 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  72. ^ "Best TV of 2011 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  73. ^ "The best TV of 2012 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  74. ^ Emily VanDerWerff. "Enlightened was the best TV show of 2013 · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  75. ^ Adams, Erik. "The best TV shows of 2014 (part 2) · Best of · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
  76. ^ "The best TV of 2015, part 2". Avclub.com. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  77. ^ "The best TV of 2016, part 2". Avclub.com. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  78. ^ "The A.V. Club's 20 best TV shows of 2017". The A.V. Club. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  79. ^ "The best TV of 2018". The A.V. Club. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  80. ^ "The 25 best TV shows of 2019". The A.V. Club. 9 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
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