History
In 1993, five years after the founding of The Onion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW student Stephen Thompson launched an entertainment section, later renamed The A.V. Club as part of the newspaper's 1995 redesign. (The name references "The Audio-Visual Club"). While the section was initially viewed as an afterthought to the publication's flagship fake news stories, Thompson credited it as becoming "very important" in allowing The Onion to expand distribution nationwide, as it was easier to sell advertising next to movie reviews and concert listings than satirical news items.
Both The Onion and The A.V. Club made their Internet debut in 1996, although not all print features were immediately available online. The A.V. Club website was redesigned in 2005 to incorporate blogs and reader comments. In 2006, concurrent with another redesign, the site shifted its model to begin adding content on a daily rather than weekly basis.
According to then Onion president Sean Mills, the A.V. Club website received over one million unique visitors for the first time in October 2007. In late 2009, the site was reported as receiving over 1.4 million unique visitors and 75,000 comments per month.
In December 2004, Stephen Thompson left his position as founding editor of The A.V. Club.
On December 9, 2010, it was discovered 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 or even completed by the authors. The offending review was removed from The A.V. Club, and editor Keith Phipps posted an apology on the site.
On December 13, 2012, long-time writer & editor Keith Phipps—who oversaw the development of the site for eight years after Stephen Thompson left—stepped down from his role as editor of The A.V. Club stating, "Onion Inc. and I have come to a mutual parting of the ways."
On April 2, 2013, longtime film editor and critic Scott Tobias stepped down from his role as film editor of The A.V. Club stating, "After 15 great years @theavclub, I step down as Film Editor next Friday."
On April 26, 2013, it was announced that longtime writers Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson and Genevieve Koski would also be leaving the site to begin work on a new project alongside Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps, with Genevieve Koski stating on her Twitter that she'd continue to write freelance articles. In the comments section of the article announcing the departures, writer Noel Murray also announced he would also be joining their project but would continue to contribute to The A.V. Club in a reduced capacity. While unconfirmed, speculation in the Chicago media world points to Pitchfork Media launching a new film-based venture called Pitchfilm with former A.V. Club writers presumably joining the staff.
Read more about this topic: The A.V. Club
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