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 | |
| Founded | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Jefferson Rabb Nicholas Thompson. |
| Headquarters | |
| Parent | Automattic |
| Website | magazine |
AtavistInc. was originally founded in 2011, by Jefferson Rabb, Evan Ratliff, and Nicholas Thompson in Brooklyn, United States. [1]
Atavist Books, a multi-platform book publishing company, was launched in partnership with Barry Diller, Scott Rudin, and Frances Coady, [2] in the spring of 2014. Their idea was to publish multimedia stories combining text, video, and audio. Sleep Donation by Karen Russell was the venture's first novella. [3]
The company started to sell the CMS it had built to create its own stories for The Atavist Magazine [4] All titles were produced and distributed using the Atavist platform. The California Sunday Magazine , Mental Floss , The Daily Dot , The Christian Science Monitor and Esquire , among other magazines, used the Atavist platform to publish feature stories on the web. [4]
After Atavist Books published its first title, five more e-titles were published.[ citation needed ]
In 2015, Atavist Inc. reportedly cut half of its staff due to lack of funding. [5]
In June 2018, Atavist announced that it was being acquired by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com. [6] In April 2021, the magazine moved to WordPress.com, joining the Newspack community of publishers. [7]
The Atavist Magazine is a monthly publication of longform narrative journalism. [8] It has been nominated for eight National Magazine Awards since its launch in 2011, [9] and in 2015 it won Best Feature Writing, with its piece "Love and Ruin" by James Verini. It was the first digital-only publication to receive the award. [10] Its titles have also been honored by the Livingston Awards, the Bayeux-Calvados Normandy Awards for War Correspondents, and the Clarion Awards, among other prizes. [11]
In June 2021, it launched its first-ever narrative podcast, No Place Like Home, about the theft of the pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. The podcast was produced by Cadence 13.
Some of its stories have been optioned for film/TV projects. [12] [13] [14] The magazine is represented by Creative Artists Agency. The editor in chief is Seyward Darby. [15] The art director is Ed Johnson. [16]
The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
Forbes is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917 and owned by Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Federle. It is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Competitors in the national business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek.
Slate is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company, and since 2008 has been managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by Graham Holdings. Slate is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C.
Popular Science is an American popular science website, covering science and technology topics geared toward general readers. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the American Society of Magazine Editors awards for its journalistic excellence in 2003, 2004, and 2019. Its print magazine, which ran from 1872 to 2020, was translated into over 30 languages and distributed to at least 45 countries. In 2021, Popular Science switched to an all-digital format and abandoned the magazine format in 2023.
Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model where the user receives "credits" that can be redeemed for content monthly and receive access to a curated on-demand library of content. Audible is the United States' largest audiobook producer and retailer. The service is owned by Audible, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
Entrepreneur is an American magazine and website that carries news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, and business. First published in 1977. it is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California. The magazine publishes 10 issues annually, available through subscription and on newsstands. It has been published under license internationally in Mexico, Russia, India, Hungary, the Philippines, South Africa, and others. Its editor-in-chief is Jason Feifer and its owner is Peter Shea.
Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company which was founded in August 2005 and is most notable for WordPress.com, as well as its contributions to WordPress. The company's name is a play on founder Matt Mullenweg's first name and the word "automatic".
The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in San Francisco, California.
The Daily Beast is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc.
Nicholas Thompson is an American technology journalist and media executive. In February 2021, he became Chief Executive Officer of The Atlantic. Thompson was selected in part for his editorial experience, which includes stints as the editor-in-chief of Wired and as the editor of Newyorker.com. In early 2024, The Atlantic announced it had more than one million subscribers and returned to profitability. He was responsible for instituting digital paywalls at both The New Yorker and Wired; at Wired, digital subscriptions increased almost 300 percent in the paywall's first year. While at The New Yorker, Thompson co-founded Atavist, which sold to Automattic in 2018, and in 2009, he published his first book, The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War, a biography of George Kennan and Thompson's maternal grandfather, Paul Nitze. Thompson's assorted writing includes features on Facebook's scandals, his own friendship with Stalin's daughter, an unidentified hiker, and his marathon running.
The Verge is an American technology news website headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass SB Nation and The Verge. Bankoff had been the CEO for SB Nation since 2009.
Medium is an American online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation. The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium, and is regularly regarded as a blog host.
Strikingly is a Chinese, "mobile-first" website builder and blogging platform. Its aim is to allow a user with little or no development experience to create mobile optimized websites and blogs. In addition to smartphones and tablets, websites created with Strikingly are "enhanced for viewing across all devices", including desktops.
Serial is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder and developed by This American Life; as of July 2020, it is owned by The New York Times.
Vox is an American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix. Vox has been described as left-leaning and progressive.
Alex Blumberg is an American entrepreneur, radio journalist, former producer for public radio and television, best known for his work with This American Life, Planet Money, and How to Save a Planet. He was the co-founder and CEO of the podcast network Gimlet Media.
Canadaland is a Canadian digital media company and podcast network, focused on producing a network of podcasts. The company was founded by Jesse Brown in 2013. The original podcast covers Canadian media and media criticism. Subsequently, new shows have been added to the network covering a range of topics from current affairs, art and culture, cooking, medicine, and Canadian politics.
Megaphone is a Software as a service (SaaS) business owned by Spotify. The company provides software for podcast hosting and monetization as well as an ad network to generate additional revenue for podcast publishers. It was formerly an audio content producer started by The Slate Group as Panoply Media, and later shifted to focusing solely on software for monetizing, measuring and distributing podcasts of media companies and independent producers.
Frances Coady is a veteran British publisher. who started Vintage paperbacks in the UK before moving to New York as the publisher of Picador, where she is now a literary agent at the Aragi agency.
