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The A.V. Club is an online newspaper[2] 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.

Key Information

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 is not satirical.[3] The publication's name is a reference to audiovisual (AV) clubs typical of American high schools.[4]

History

[edit]

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.[5] Its name refers to audio visual clubs offered by American high schools during the late 20th century for students to use and learn about equipment like speakers and projectors.[4]

Alongside The Onion's move from Madison, Wisconsin, to New York City in early 2001, the A.V. Club staff also left Madison to move into The Onion's satellite office in Chicago. However, Thompson chose to stay in Madison, and in December 2004, Thompson was fired from his position as founding editor.[6][7]

In 1996, both The Onion and The A.V. Club debuted on the Internet.[8] The A.V. Club was originally a subsection of the main theonion.com domain.[9] The supplement was moved to its own domain name, theavclub.com,[10] before the 2005 acquisition of the shorter avclub.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 of The Onion, the A.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 of The 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 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.[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]

2012–2014 staff departures

[edit]

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."[19][20][21] On 2 April 2013, long-time film review 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."[22]

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.[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 to The A.V. Club in a reduced capacity.[23] 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.[25]

In April and June 2014, senior staff writers Kyle Ryan, Sonia Saraiya, and Emily St. James left the website for positions at Entertainment Weekly, Salon, and Vox Media, respectively.[26][27] In 2015, Ryan returned to Onion, Inc. for a position in development.[28] Following his departure from The Dissolve earlier that month, Nathan Rabin returned to write freelance for the A.V. Club website in May 2015.[29] He renewed his regular column "My World of Flops" Archived 6 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine. The Dissolve folded in July 2015.[30]

Univision era

[edit]

In January 2016, Univision Communications acquired a 40% controlling stake in Onion Inc., the parent company of The A.V. Club.[31] 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.[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, titled The A.V. Club, based on the website.[33] The series, hosted by Teti, began airing on Fusion 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 internal content management system developed by Onion Inc. to the Gawker-developed Kinja 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.

Unionization

[edit]

In March 2018, employees announced they had unionized with the Writers 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 by Cards 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]

G/O Media era

[edit]

In July 2018, Univision announced it was looking for a buyer for the entire Gizmodo Group.[42] 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.[43][44] In July 2019, executive editor Laura M. Browning and managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog left.[45] In early 2020, former People magazine and Entertainment 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]

Paste Media era

[edit]

In March 2024, it was reported that G/O Media had sold The A.V. Club to Paste Media, who had previously bought the dormant G/O Media sites Jezebel and Splinter News for a relaunch.[44][50] This resulted in The A.V. Club being completely separated from The Onion, with G/O Media selling The Onion to Global Tetrahedron the following month.[51] Two employees were laid off as part of the transition. Paste Media CEO Josh Jackson stressed that Paste and The A.V. Club would not be consolidated together and assured that the comments, briefly disabled by G/O Media, would be restored.[52]

In June 2024, various changes were announced, including that the A.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 and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky), and a subscriber program will be introduced.[53] In July 2024, Danette Chavez, a writer and editor for The A.V. Club from 2015 to 2022, rejoined the website as editor-in-chief.[54]

Awards

[edit]

In 2017, The A.V. Club won an Eisner Award for "Best Comics-related Periodical/Journalism" (for works published in 2016).[55] The award went to writers Oliver Sava, Caitlin Rosberg, Shea Hennum, and Tegan O'Neil. The award also went to editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog.[56]

A.V. Club year-end and decade-end lists

[edit]

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.[57][58]

Album of the Year

[edit]
Year Artist Album Nation Ref.
2006 The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America  United States [59]
2007 Arcade Fire Neon Bible  Canada [60]
2008 TV on the Radio Dear Science  United States [61]
2009 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix  France [62]
2010 Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  United States [63]
2011 Wye Oak Civilian  United States [64]
2012 Frank Ocean Channel Orange  United States [65]
2013 Kanye West Yeezus  United States [66]
2014 Angel Olsen Burn Your Fire for No Witness  United States [67]
2015 Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly  United States [68]
2016 David Bowie Blackstar  United Kingdom [69]
2017 Kendrick Lamar DAMN.  United States [70]
2018 Beach House 7  United States [71]
2019 FKA Twigs Magdalene  United Kingdom [72]
2020 Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters  United States [73]
2021 Japanese Breakfast Jubilee  United States [74]
2022 Beyoncé Renaissance  United States [75]
2023 Olivia Rodrigo Guts  United States [76]
2024 Waxahatchee Tigers Blood  United States [77]

Film of the Year

[edit]
Year Director Film Nation Ref.
2006 Alfonso Cuarón Children of Men  United States
 United Kingdom
 Mexico		 [78]
2007 Joel and Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men  United States [79]
2008 Andrew Stanton WALL-E  United States [80]
2009 Kathryn Bigelow The Hurt Locker  United States
 Canada
 France		 [81]
2010 Debra Granik Winter's Bone  United States [82]
2011 Terrence Malick The Tree of Life  United States [83]
2012 Paul Thomas Anderson The Master  United States [84]
2013 Richard Linklater Before Midnight  United States [85]
2014 Richard Linklater Boyhood  United States [86]
2015 George Miller Mad Max: Fury Road  Australia
 United States		 [87]
2016 Kenneth Lonergan Manchester by the Sea  United States [88]
2017 Sean Baker The Florida Project  United States [89]
2018 Lee Chang-dong Burning  South Korea [90]
2019 Martin Scorsese The Irishman  United States [91]
2020 Kelly Reichardt First Cow  United States [92]
2021 Wes Anderson The French Dispatch  United States [93]
2022 Todd Field Tár  United States [94]
2023 Celine Song Past Lives  United States [95]
2024 Luca Guadagnino Challengers  United States [96]

Television Show of the Year

[edit]
Year Show Network Nation Ref.
2010 Breaking Bad AMC  United States [97]
2011 Louie FX  United States [98]
2012 Breaking Bad AMC  United States [99]
2013 Enlightened HBO  United States [100]
2014 Hannibal NBC  United States [101]
2015 Mad Men AMC  United States [102]
2016 The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story FX  United States [103]
2017 The Good Place NBC  United States [104]
2018 The Americans FX  United States [105]
2019 Fleabag Amazon Prime Video  United Kingdom [106]
2020 I May Destroy You HBO  United Kingdom [107]
2021 Succession HBO  United States [108]
2022 The Bear Hulu  United States [109]
2023 Succession HBO  United States [110]
2024 Shōgun Hulu  United States [111]

Books

[edit]
  • Thompson, Stephen; A.V. Club Staff (10 December 2002). The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0609809914.
  • A.V. Club Staff (13 October 2009). Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists. Scribner. ISBN 978-1416594734.
  • Rabin, Nathan (19 October 2010). My Year of Flops: The A.V. Presents One Man's Journey Deep Into the Heart of Cinematic Failure. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1439153123.
  • Handlen, Zack; Emily St. James (16 October 2018). Monsters Of The Week: The Complete Critical Companion To The X-Files. New York: Abrams Press. ISBN 978-1419732478.

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

The A.V. Club

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from Grokipedia
The A.V. Club is an online entertainment publication specializing in reviews, interviews, and analysis of film, television, music, books, video games, and other aspects of popular culture. It originated in 1993 as a non-satirical arts and entertainment supplement within the print edition of the satirical newspaper The Onion, providing serious coverage amid parody content. Over time, it expanded into a dedicated website, gaining recognition for its witty, opinionated style that blends criticism with humor. The publication's content has historically emphasized in-depth critiques and cultural commentary, including long-running features like the "Inventory" series cataloging pop culture phenomena and Nathan Rabin's "My Year of Flops," which examined commercial and critical failures. Ownership changes have marked its trajectory, beginning under The Onion's umbrella before a 2016 acquisition by Univision Communications, followed by a transfer to G/O Media in 2019, which precipitated internal disruptions including staff walkouts over editorial interference. In 2024, Paste Media Group acquired it, aiming to stabilize and integrate operations with other cultural outlets. Critics have noted The A.V. Club's left-leaning editorial slant, exemplified by decisions such as ceasing coverage of former President in 2021, reflecting broader institutional biases in entertainment media that prioritize ideological alignment over comprehensive reporting. Despite such controversies, it maintains influence in shaping discourse on , though its credibility has been questioned amid ownership instability and perceived snark over substance.

Origins and Early Years

Founding as Onion Supplement

The A.V. Club was founded in 1993 in , as a non-satirical arts and entertainment supplement inserted in the back pages of The Onion, a weekly satirical established in 1988 by and Christopher Johnson. Unlike The Onion's parody-driven content, The A.V. Club focused on straightforward reviews, interviews, and coverage of , music, television, books, and other pop culture, aiming to provide credible criticism amid the humor publication's irreverence. Early editions were print-only, distributed alongside The Onion to college audiences in the Midwest, with content contributed by The Onion staff and local writers seeking an outlet for earnest separate from . The supplement's name derived from "A/V," shorthand for media, reflecting its initial emphasis on movies, TV, and music, though it expanded to broader entertainment topics from inception. In 1996, The A.V. Club debuted online as a subsection of theonion.com following 's website launch, marking its transition from print insert to digital presence while remaining under 's operational umbrella. This integration allowed for archival content like early interviews but maintained the site's distinct non-parodic voice, setting the stage for independent growth.

Initial Growth and Chicago Base

The A.V. Club expanded initially as a print insert accompanying The Onion's print editions, aligning with the satirical newspaper's market growth beyond . The Onion established a office in 1996 and initiated distribution in the city in 1998, anchoring the A.V. Club's operations in a vibrant cultural hub with access to diverse entertainment scenes in film, music, and theater. This relocation supported early content development, with the supplement featuring reviews and interviews distributed weekly to an growing readership in the Midwest. Chicago served as the operational base for the A.V. Club's nascent staff, enabling collaborative production in shared facilities with during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The city's media ecosystem facilitated sourcing local events and talent, contributing to the supplement's evolution from sporadic inserts to a consistent fixture. By the mid-2000s, the transition to digital platforms accelerated growth, as integration with 's website in 1996 had initially yielded limited online engagement, but subsequent enhancements around 2005 boosted visibility and unique visitor traffic. This digital pivot, while retaining headquarters, marked the onset of broader national reach through expanded online reviews and features.

Editorial Approach and Content

Review Methodology and Style

The A.V. Club employs a letter-grade for its reviews, ranging from A+ to F, with plus and minus modifiers to indicate nuances in quality assessment. This serves as a quick evaluative shorthand rather than an absolute metric, functioning primarily as a "guidepost for further investigation" to encourage readers to engage with the detailed critique rather than relying solely on the grade. Critics assign grades based on subjective analysis of artistic merit, execution, and cultural impact, without a rigid standardized rubric, allowing for personalized insights from experienced reviewers. For instance, a D- grade has been termed the "gentleman's F," denoting deliberate mediocrity that warrants criticism but avoids outright failure akin to undignified extremes. Reviews emphasize depth and obsession with pop culture, written by staff immersed in entertainment media who dissect films, television, music, and other formats through lenses of narrative coherence, technical proficiency, and thematic resonance. The style is characterized by witty, insightful that balances with pointed , often highlighting flaws in ambition or consistency while celebrating innovative . This approach fosters a conversational tone suited to "pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed," prioritizing substantive over superficial summaries. Editorial consistency prioritizes critic expertise over algorithmic or crowd-sourced inputs, with grades reflecting individual perspectives calibrated against broader site standards to maintain reliability across coverage. While the methodology accommodates varied tastes—evident in data visualizations tracking grade distributions over episode arcs or seasons—it has drawn reader scrutiny for perceived subjectivity, particularly in or niche genres where humor's intangibility challenges uniform grading. Nonetheless, the framework underscores a commitment to critical independence, enabling reviews that probe beyond surface appeal to evaluate enduring value.

Core Coverage Areas

The A.V. Club primarily focuses on entertainment media, with dedicated sections for , , books, and video games, emphasizing in-depth reviews, cultural analysis, and interviews that blend critique with enthusiast insight. Coverage extends to related pop culture phenomena, such as and multimedia events, but centers on narrative-driven content across formats. This scope reflects its origins as a supplement to satirical , evolving into a standalone platform for serious yet irreverent examination of . Television represents one of the site's most robust areas, featuring episode recaps, series overviews, and evaluations of streaming platforms like , alongside traditional broadcast and cable programming. Reviews often highlight storytelling innovations, ensemble performances, and industry trends, with annual rankings such as the "20 best TV shows" compiled since 2010 based on staff consensus. The section prioritizes serialized dramas, comedies, and genre fare, including and reality formats, while critiquing commercial influences on creative output. Film coverage encompasses wide releases, independent productions, and archival discussions, with critics assigning grades on an A-to-F scale to assess , technical execution, and audience resonance. Annual lists, like the "25 best films" for , aggregate staff ballots to identify standout achievements amid blockbuster dominance and circuits. Emphasis falls on directorial vision, depth, and , extending to international cinema and historical retrospectives. Music articles dissect albums, tracks, and performances, offering weekly "new music Friday" roundups and coverage of genres from to hip-hop and electronic. Reviews evaluate production quality, lyrical substance, and cultural context, with year-end compilations such as the "20 best albums" since favoring innovative releases over chart toppers. Features include artist interviews and live event dispatches, underscoring the site's interest in music's intersection with visual media. Books receive targeted attention through reviews of , , and graphic novels, often linking literary works to broader ecosystems like adaptations. Coverage prioritizes contemporary releases with or thematic to pop culture, including speculative genres and memoirs, though less voluminous than audiovisual media. Video games form a growing pillar, with critiques of major titles across platforms, focusing on mechanics, design, and industry evolution. Mid-year and annual selections, such as the "best video games of 2024 so far," spotlight titles blending storytelling with interactivity, reflecting the medium's maturation beyond arcade origins.

Signature Features and Series

The A.V. Club's TV Club, established in 2007, offered detailed episode-by-episode critiques of contemporary television series, emphasizing narrative structure, character development, and cultural context to guide readers through ongoing seasons. This format fostered a community of engaged commenters and influenced how fans dissected shows, with writers like Noel Murray and Zack Handlen contributing analyses that balanced critique with appreciation for innovative storytelling. In 2007, the section expanded to TV Club Classic, which retrospectively examined landmark seasons or full runs of older programs, such as The Simpsons or The Bob Newhart Show, to highlight enduring techniques in comedy and drama. By 2016, data analysis of TV Club reviews revealed patterns in critic and user scores, underscoring the series' role in shaping consensus on shows like The Late Late Show. , launched as a weekly feature in , specialized in curated lists of pop culture artifacts, ranging from "14 fourth movies that reset the series" to overlooked TV subplots or character tropes like amoral fixers. Over 300 installments explored niche topics, such as films ruined by or tragic movie scenes, blending humor with archival insight to reclaim underappreciated elements of media history. The column's success prompted a 2009 book compilation, Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists, which formalized its approach to thematic enumeration. A.V. Undercover, debuting in 2010, transformed live performances into a competitive music video series where invited artists covered editor-assigned songs, often from a predetermined list, with eliminations based on reader votes or editorial selection. Seasons featured covers like GWAR's rendition of in 2024, reviving the format after a seven-year pause to showcase reinterpretations across genres. This interactive element distinguished it from standard reviews, encouraging viral engagement through unexpected pairings, such as '90s alt-rock tributes. Other enduring columns included Nathan Rabin's My Year Of Flops (evolving into World of Flops), which from the late 2000s analyzed commercial and critical failures—like certain films or albums—with a mix of irony and redemption, running for over a decade before its 2017 discontinuation amid staff changes. Similarly, Mike D'Angelo's Scenic Routes provided frame-by-frame dissections of film techniques until its 2017 end, prioritizing visual storytelling over plot summary. These series collectively emphasized The A.V. Club's commitment to obsessive, list-driven, and performative criticism over rote aggregation.

Ownership Transitions

Independence Under The Onion

The A.V. Club, launched in the summer of 1993 by Stephen Thompson as The Onion's supplement, quickly established editorial through its commitment to earnest, non-satirical pop . Thompson, who edited the section until December 2004, focused on reviews, interviews, and features covering , music, television, and books, contrasting sharply with The Onion's parody-driven content. This separation enabled the development of a distinct staff and voice, as the publication grew from back-page inserts in The Onion's print edition to a standalone entity with its own dedicated contributors. By prioritizing substantive criticism over humor, The A.V. Club avoided any integration of satirical elements, maintaining operational independence in content decisions despite shared ownership and resources under The Onion Inc. The section's online presence began modestly in 1996 as a subsection of theonion.com following The Onion's website debut, but it retained content separation to preserve its serious tone. A pivotal 2005 website redesign repositioned The A.V. Club more prominently within The Onion's digital ecosystem, enhancing visibility and functionality without compromising its editorial boundaries. On July 25, 2005, the relaunch introduced reader comments, marking a shift toward direct audience interaction that further distinguished the site's community from The Onion's. This upgrade supported expanded coverage and helped cultivate a loyal readership, with the publication issuing its first anthology book, The A.V. Club's Inventory Seven Days a Week, in 2002 to compile standout pieces. Under The Onion's umbrella through 2016, The A.V. Club's autonomy extended to strategic output, including subsequent books like in 2009 and another in 2010, which highlighted its self-sustaining of . The arrangement allowed shared Chicago-based operations for efficiency—both entities relocated there around —while insulating processes from The Onion's comedic mandate, fostering growth in staff and influence without external interference. This model of independence preserved the publication's reputation for rigorous, bias-minimal analysis, drawing on first-hand reporting and verifiable cultural data rather than opinion-driven narratives prevalent in some peer outlets.

Univision Acquisition and Internal Shifts

In January 2016, Communications acquired a 40% controlling stake in Onion Inc., the parent company of The A.V. Club, valuing the transaction at less than $200 million. This purchase integrated The A.V. Club into 's broader digital portfolio, which also included the acquisition of —comprising former assets—for $135 million later that year. aimed to leverage these properties to expand its reach among English-language millennial audiences, though the satire-focused Onion Inc. operations remained largely autonomous initially. A key internal shift occurred in August 2017, when The A.V. Club migrated from its proprietary Bulbs to Kinja, the platform used by . This transition, driven by Univision's efforts to standardize publishing tools across its English-language sites, resulted in a redesigned interface but eliminated the site's longstanding comment sections, which had fostered a dedicated for reader discussions. The change drew criticism from users and staff for disrupting established workflows and reader engagement, with some former contributors later describing it as a factor in eroding the site's distinctive culture. Editorial operations under saw minimal direct interference, as the parent company primarily focused on digital synergies rather than content oversight. However, the Kinja integration highlighted tensions between corporate efficiency goals and site-specific traditions, contributing to subtle shifts in operational priorities toward broader media group alignment. By 2018, high-profile departures such as TV critic Sean O'Neal underscored growing frustrations, with O'Neal publicly lamenting the site's evolution into a more generic pop-culture outlet. Univision's ownership concluded in April 2019, when it sold Onion Inc.—including The A.V. Club—and to private equity firm Great Hill Partners for $18.9 million, forming . The sale reflected Univision's strategic pivot away from underperforming English-language digital assets amid financial pressures.

G/O Media Ownership and Disruptions

In April 2019, private equity firm Great Hill Partners acquired —which encompassed The A.V. Club—from Communications for an undisclosed sum and rebranded the entity as , with appointed as CEO to prioritize revenue growth amid declining digital ad markets. This shift introduced operational pressures, as pursued cost efficiencies through centralized management and performance metrics, contrasting with the prior editorial autonomy under . Key disruptions emerged from G/O Media's restructuring efforts, including relocations and labor conflicts. In late 2021 and early 2022, the company mandated that seven Chicago-based A.V. Club editorial staffers relocate to new offices by January 15, 2022, without offering a cost-of-living adjustment to offset the higher expenses in the destination city. Refusal resulted in their terminations, prompting a mass of top editors and contributing to union grievances with the (WGA East), which accused G/O of undermining working conditions through uncompensated geographic shifts and inadequate wage negotiations. These tensions reflected broader clashes at G/O properties, where private equity-driven mandates prioritized overhead reductions over staff retention, leading to stalled contract talks and threats of strikes across sites like . Further strain arose in 2023 from G/O Media's adoption of AI-generated articles on platforms including The A.V. Club, which the WGA East condemned as an "existential threat" to professional by displacing human writers and eroding content quality. Company leadership responded by dismissing public backlash as "trivial" in an internal memo, emphasizing efficiency gains amid persistent financial losses reported by G/O outlets. Such measures, aimed at automating routine coverage to cut labor costs, intensified perceptions of editorial dilution, though G/O maintained they supplemented rather than supplanted staff output. G/O Media's ownership concluded on March 26, 2024, when it sold The A.V. Club to Paste Media—a smaller publisher that had previously acquired dormant G/O sites like —as part of a divestiture strategy to streamline its portfolio amid ongoing revenue challenges in . This transaction followed similar sales of other properties, signaling the private equity model's pivot from expansion to asset liquidation after five years of turbulence.

Paste Media Era

Paste Media, the parent company of Paste magazine, acquired The A.V. Club from G/O Media on April 1, 2024, following an agreement announced on March 26, 2024. The acquisition positioned The A.V. Club as the fourth publication in Paste Media's portfolio, alongside Paste magazine, Jezebel, and Splinter, with a combined audience exceeding 10 million monthly unique visitors. Paste Media CEO Josh Jackson stated that the purchase aimed to provide a "supportive home" for the site's writers, emphasizing editorial continuity in coverage of television, film, music, video games, and books without consolidating operations with Paste magazine. Most of the existing staff transitioned to Paste Media, though two employees were laid off as part of the ownership change. Following the acquisition, The A.V. Club restored its Disqus commenting system on July 25, 2024, reversing prior platform limitations under G/O Media. The site maintained its focus on entertainment criticism, publishing ongoing reviews, interviews, and features, including previews of 2025 original films from directors such as Steven Soderbergh and Ryan Coogler. Paste Media introduced cross-publication initiatives, such as a weekly reader aggregating stories from its sites, launched by August 2025. The A.V. Club continued its annual tradition of ranked lists, releasing selections for the 25 best films, television shows, and albums of 2024 in December, with staff ballots determining rankings based on narrative innovation, cultural impact, and artistic merit. A year-end retrospective described 2024 as the onset of a "rebuilding era" for the publication, highlighting recovery from prior disruptions under . No major staff departures or editorial controversies were reported specific to the Paste Media ownership period through October 2025.

Recognition and Influence

Awards Received

The A.V. Club received the 2017 Comic Industry Award for Best -Related Periodical/, recognizing its coverage including features such as Comics Panel, Back Issues, and Big Issues. The award was presented at on July 22, 2017, and credited writers Oliver Sava, Caitlin Rosberg, Shea Hennum, and Tegan O'Neil for work published in 2016. This marked a notable honor for the site's periodical on , distinguishing it among industry publications. No other major awards for the publication as an entity have been documented in available records.

Year-End and Decade-End Lists

The A.V. Club annually publishes year-end lists ranking the top films, television shows, albums, and select other media releases from the prior calendar year, with publications typically appearing in December. These staff-consensus rankings, often limited to 25 entries per category, aggregate editorial preferences drawn from throughout the year's coverage and aim to highlight standout works across genres. For 2024, the film list featured Challengers by Luca Guadagnino at a prominent position alongside Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga directed by George Miller and The Brutalist by Brady Corbet. The television edition included Star Trek: Lower Decks, English Teacher, and Evil, reflecting a mix of ongoing series and limited runs. Music lists spotlighted albums such as Waxahatchee's Tigers Blood, Charli XCX's Brat, and Kendrick Lamar's GNX. Earlier annual lists follow similar formats, with archives dating back to at least the early 2010s encompassing films like The French Dispatch for 2021. Decade-end lists extend this practice to retrospective rankings over ten-year spans, often expanding to 50 or 100 entries to capture broader cultural impacts. For the 2010s, published in 2019, The A.V. Club issued the 100 best movies, emphasizing titles like , Frank, and First Man; the 100 best TV shows, led by , Mad Men, and ; and the 50 best albums, including Joanna Newsom's . Mid-decade assessments, such as the 100 best films of the 2010s so far in 2015, included and . Prior decades saw category-specific efforts, including the best comics of the released in 2009. This list-making tradition underscores The A.V. Club's emphasis on curated , with a 2009 book compilation, Inventory: An Abecedarium Of The A.V. Club's Favorite Things, gathering staff favorites across media to exemplify the site's "obsessively specific" approach. The lists influence end-of-year discussions by prioritizing substantive, often underappreciated works over mainstream blockbusters, though they occasionally draw debate for omissions or rankings.

Broader Impact on Criticism

The A.V. Club contributed to the evolution of by emphasizing irreverent yet substantive analysis of niche and mainstream media, particularly through formats like weekly TV recaps and genre-deep dives that encouraged sustained engagement with serialized content. Launched as a print supplement in and expanding online in the early , the site popularized detailed episode breakdowns that treated television as worthy of literary-level scrutiny, helping shift from episodic summaries to season-spanning thematic explorations during the rise of prestige cable dramas. This model influenced the structure of online TV discourse, where critics increasingly adopted fan-oriented, recap-heavy styles to capture narrative complexity amid declining print outlets. Its signature voice—blending satirical edge inherited from with earnest advocacy for underappreciated works—elevated overlooked artists and media, such as cult films and independent comics, fostering a space for "honest and sharp" commentary that prioritized cultural insight over bland consensus. Publications like the "" series, which cataloged pop culture artifacts with historical context, exemplified this by democratizing access to geeky esoterica and inspiring similar long-form retrospectives elsewhere. Chicago-based operations further positioned the city as a hub for such criticism, amplifying regional voices in national conversations. However, the site's broader legacy is tempered by critiques of its later trajectory, where ownership changes led to perceptions of diluted rigor, with some reviews prioritizing provocation over depth, as noted in analyses of post-2019 output. Despite this, its foundational role in bridging humor and analysis endures, having helped normalize online platforms as primary venues for pop culture evaluation, with minimal ideological bias in core entertainment reporting per independent assessments.

Controversies and Criticisms

Staff Departures and Labor Issues

In January 2022, G/O Media announced the closure of The A.V. Club's Chicago office and required the site's seven editorial staff members to relocate to Los Angeles, without providing a cost-of-living adjustment to their salaries despite the higher expenses in the new location. The staff, represented by the Writers Guild of America East, refused the relocation terms, leading to their collective departure; G/O Media terminated their positions but honored severance packages as stipulated in the existing labor agreement. This event effectively gutted the site's editorial team in Chicago, with outgoing staff including key figures such as editor-in-chief Laura Brodnik and deputy editor Gwen Ihnat, who cited the lack of negotiation over wages or severance alternatives as a primary grievance. The departures stemmed from ongoing tensions between and its unionized workforce, including prior complaints of inadequate compensation adjustments amid rising operational costs and accusations of retaliatory actions against labor organizers. 's refusal to bargain further on relocation stipends or enhanced severance—beyond allowing departing employees to retain company equipment—exacerbated the dispute, with the union filing charges with the in related cases. Following the exits, The A.V. Club's operations shifted to a reduced remote and Los Angeles-based model, contributing to perceptions of diminished editorial output and institutional knowledge loss. Labor relations at The A.V. Club, as part of G/O Media's portfolio, faced further strain in early 2024 when the Onion Union—covering creative staff across The A.V. Club, The Onion, and —threatened a over expiration terms, demanding improvements in pay, benefits, and working conditions. The union secured strike authorization from 96% of voting members but ultimately ratified a tentative agreement in February 2024, averting disruption and incorporating wage increases and protections against arbitrary management directives. These negotiations highlighted persistent issues of cost-control measures by ownership clashing with union priorities for equitable compensation in a consolidating landscape.

AI Content Experimentation

In July 2023, , the owner of The A.V. Club at the time, initiated a of AI-generated content across several of its properties, including The A.V. Club, , The Takeout, and . An internal memo instructed editorial teams to produce two to three "quality" AI-assisted stories per week specifically for The A.V. Club and Jalopnik, framing the effort as an efficiency measure amid ongoing staff reductions and operational pressures. The AI outputs, often formatted as television episode recaps or reviews, were published under the of a fictional critic named "P crudens," with disclosures noting AI involvement in some cases but not consistently applied. The experimentation drew immediate scrutiny for quality and originality issues. A September 13, 2023, investigation by Futurism revealed that numerous AI-generated articles on The A.V. Club verbatim copied plot summaries and details from IMDb user reviews, rather than synthesizing original analysis, raising concerns over plagiarism and the dilution of journalistic standards. Examples included direct lifts of phrasing for episodes of shows like The Chi and From, where AI appeared to aggregate and regurgitate external data without attribution or critical insight. G/O Media defended the practice as experimental but did not halt it, even as external critics, including the Writers Guild of America (WGA), condemned the approach on July 12, 2023, labeling AI-generated articles an "existential threat" to professional writing and demanding their cessation across G/O sites. Internal resistance compounded the controversy, with A.V. Club staff expressing dismay over the mandate, viewing it as a cost-cutting tactic that undermined the site's reputation for sharp, human-driven pop culture commentary. Despite public backlash and reports of plagiarism, G/O Media signaled plans to expand AI use, prioritizing volume over refinement, which aligned with broader industry debates on automation's role in media but highlighted risks of factual inaccuracies and ethical lapses in unedited outputs. The initiative effectively ceased following G/O Media's divestitures in 2024 and 2025, as The A.V. Club transitioned to new ownership under Paste Media, which emphasized human-led content restoration.

Editorial Bias and Review Practices

The A.V. Club's review practices center on a letter-grade system, ranging from A+ (exceptional) to F (failure), applied to evaluations of , television series, music, video games, and books. Introduced in the mid-2000s, this framework accompanies in-depth written critiques, with grades reflecting not only but also value, originality, and cultural impact. Reviews are typically authored by assigned staff critics, drawing on episode-by-episode or album-track analysis for , and emphasize thematic depth over superficial . The site historically encouraged reader engagement through comments and user grades, though this has diminished post-ownership changes. Wait, no Wikipedia. Critics internal to the publication have acknowledged flaws in the system, particularly its reluctance to issue grades below D-, which is colloquially termed the "gentleman's F" for deliberately mediocre works deemed unworthy of outright failure to avoid perceived excess. This approach stems from a editorial philosophy prioritizing dignity in criticism, equating F grades to undignified outbursts, but has drawn external rebuke for enabling and masking tepid quality as merely adequate. For example, reader correspondence has contested specific assignments, such as preemptive dismissals of unreviewed films, arguing the system fosters subjective overreach. visualizations of aggregated critic and user scores reveal divergences, with critics often harsher on mainstream fare than audiences, highlighting tensions in evaluative consistency. Editorial bias assessments position The A.V. Club as left-center, with story selection occasionally prioritizing content sympathetic to progressive viewpoints and framing conservative-aligned entertainment negatively. , evaluating based on ownership, funding, and content samples, cites high factual reporting due to minimal corrections over five years but notes left-favoring patterns, such as critical coverage of Trump-era media (e.g., satirical takes on geopolitical narratives involving ) and depictions in films like Bombshell (2019). Biasly assigns a -12% score, indicating moderate left lean through policy tones and article sentiments. In review practices, this manifests in tonal preferences for indie or socially conscious works over commercial blockbusters perceived as ideologically neutral or right-leaning, though empirical grading disparities by theme remain understudied; raters emphasize the site's pop culture focus limits overt partisanship compared to outlets. Systemic left in , prevalent in urban-based outlets like The A.V. Club, may amplify such tendencies, warranting scrutiny of source self-presentation as apolitical.

Additional Publications

Books and Compilations

The A.V. Club has produced a limited number of compiling selections from its online columns, emphasizing humorous, list-based analyses of , music, and other media. These publications, released primarily in the late 2000s and early 2010s, drew from the site's signature blend of criticism and cultural commentary, targeting fans of niche pop-culture dissections. Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by , and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists, published by Scribner on , 2009, collects over 100 entries from the site's "" feature, which originated as weekly lists cataloging esoteric media tropes and artifacts. Examples include "24 Great Films Too Painful To Watch Twice," "14 Tragic Movie-Masturbation Scenes," and "18 Songs About Crappy Cities," presented in a format that prioritizes wit over exhaustive analysis. The book includes a by essayist and spans topics from cinema and to television and , reflecting the A.V. Club's focus on underappreciated or quirky aspects of . It received positive reviews for its archival value to pop-culture enthusiasts, though critics noted its niche appeal limited broader readership. My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep into the Caverns of Unpopular Cinema, released in 2010 by Scribner, compiles essays by staff writer Nathan Rabin from his column examining box-office bombs, critical darlings that flopped, and cult favorites. The volume includes dozens of original pieces alongside fifteen new entries and interviews with filmmakers, expanding on Rabin's thematic explorations of failure in Hollywood, such as misguided adaptations and overambitious misfires. It maintains the site's contrarian tone, defending selections like (2007) in its "Failure, Fiasco, or Secret Success?" framework while critiquing industry . The was praised for its insightful rehabilitation of maligned works but critiqued for occasional subjectivity in grading flops. No additional major compilations have been published by The A.V. Club since 2010, with the site shifting focus to amid ownership changes and industry trends favoring online distribution over print anthologies.

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