Atavist Magazine
 | |
| Editor | Seyward Darby |
|---|---|
| Categories | Longform |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Founded | 2011 (13 years) |
| Company | Automattic |
| Based in | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Language | English |
| Website | https://magazine.atavist.com/ |
The Atavist Magazine is an American publication based in Brooklyn, New York. It features longform and investigative journalism. It was founded in 2011, through Silicon Valley funding by Jefferson Rabb, Evan Ratliff, and Nicholas Thompson.[1] In 2018 the paper was bought by Automattic, who currently owns it.[2]
The Atavist Magazine is unique as instead of publishing multiple articles, every edition of The Atavist only has one longform story. Despite being a magazine, The Atavist Magazine does not have a physical form, instead sending each edition through email, which is sent monthly.
History
[edit]The Atavist Magazine started as an idea between Jefferson Rabb, Evan Ratliff, and Nicholas Thompson, after a few drinks. After raising 1.5 Million[3] in seed money from Silicon Valley, the first issue of The Atavist Magazine was published on November 1st 2011. The first edition was the story "Piano Demon" by Brendan I. Koerner, who had previously worked with The New York Times and Wired. "Piano Demon" was about the life of Teddy Weatherford, a jazz musician.[4] Due to the magazine not being in print, The Atavist Magazine was only available on iPad's, Kindles, or Nook e-books.[3] Along with the magazine, Creativist Software was also launched by the founders, which has been used by The Paris Review, Pearson, The Christian Science Monitor and Vice.[1][5]
In the beginning of 2012 the multimedia Brightline, later known as Atavist Books, was launched in partnership with Barry Diller, Scott Rudin, and Frances Coady.[3] The first publication was the novella "Sleep Donation" by Karen Russell. The book is about a fictional world where insomnia is fatal, and a growing problem throughout the world, with privet corporations harvesting sleep.[6] The novella was well received.[7][6][8]
At the very end of 2014 Atavist Books was shut down with its assets being folded into either The Atavist (At the time the parent company of The Atavist Magazine) and IAC. This was despite the recent success of the book, "The Trials of White Boy Rick" by Evan Hughes.[9] Overall, Atavist Books published 2 books and 4 novellas.[9]
In 2015, after failing to raise enough money, The Atavist had to cut its staff in half. To try to increase profitability, The Atavist shuttered down their native apps in favor of a website.[10]
In June 2018 The Atavist Magazine announced that they were being acquired by AutoMattic, the developer of WordPress. This was due to a lack of funding.[11]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b David, Carr (2012-05-20). "Maturing as Publisher and Platform". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
- ^ Mullin, Benjamin (21 June 2018). "WordPress.com Owner Buys Atavist, Maker of Subscription-Offering Publishing Software". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
- ^ a b c "The Atavist Is the Future of Storytelling". Inc.com. Archived from the original on 2022-05-28. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ Koerner, Brendan I. (1970-01-01). "Piano Demon". The Atavist Magazine. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ "How Atavist is winning over publishers". Digiday. 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ a b "Book Review: "Sleep Donation: A Novella"". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ Jordison, Sam (2014-05-08). "Karen Russell's Sleep Donation is not a new paradigm, it's just very good". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ "Terminal Tossing and Turning (Published 2014)". 2014-04-02. Archived from the original on 2023-09-09. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ a b X (2014-10-21). "Atavist Books to close up shop". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ "Atavist cuts half its staff and searches for a sustainable path as funding dries up". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
- ^ Mullin, Benjamin. "WordPress.com Owner Buys Atavist, Maker of Subscription-Offering Publishing Software". WSJ. Archived from the original on 2022-06-28. Retrieved 2024-12-11.