Atavist Inc. was launched in 2011 and is the company behind the Atavist multimedia publishing platform and ''The Atavist Magazine,'' an award-winning monthly magazine. It was founded by Jefferson Rabb, Evan Ratliff, and Nicholas Thompson. In the spring of 2015, the company released its free publishing platform. The new platform allows users to create and sell long-form content across multiple platforms. Early investors in the company include IAC, Eric Schmidt, and the Founders Fund. It is now owned by

Automattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company which was founded in August 2005 and is most notable for WordPress.com (a freemium blogging service), as well as its contributions to WordPress (an open source blogging software). The co ...

History

''The California Sunday Magazine'', ''

Mental Floss ''Mental Floss'' (stylized as ''mental_floss'') is an online magazine and its related American digital, print, and e-commerce media company focused on millennials. It is owned by Minute Media and based in New York City, United States. mentalfloss ...

'', The Daily Dot, ''The Christian Science Monitor'', ''Esquire'', and ''Vice'', among other outlets, used the Atavist platform to publish "eye-catching" feature stories on the web. Atavist Books, a multi-platform book publishing company, was launched in partnership with

Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall ...

Scott Rudin Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture '' No Country for Old Men,'' as well as '' Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dr ...

, and Frances Coady, in the spring of 2014, with ''Sleep Donation'' by Karen Russell as the venture's first novella. All titles were produced and distributed using the Atavist platform. In the following months after Atavist Books published its first title, five more e-titles were published. In October 2014, the initiative was shut down. A spokesperson of the company said, "We have identified that the market for highly innovative enhanced full-length literary eBooks still heavily relies on a print component and has yet to emerge." In 2015, Atavist Inc. reportedly cut half of its staff "as funding began to dried up". In June 2018, Atavist announced that it was being acquired by

, the parent company of WordPress.com. The publishing platform was retired in April 2021. The magazine continues monthly publication. It is now built on Newspack, an advanced open-source publishing and revenue-generating platform for news organizations, created by WordPress.com and the Google News Initiative. ''The Atavist Magazine'' is a monthly publication of longform narrative journalism. It has been nominated for eight

National Magazine Awards The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

since its launch in 2011, and in 2015 it won for best Feature Writing with its piece "Love and Ruin," by James Verini. It was the first digital-only publication to receive the award. Its titles have also been honored by the Livingston Awards, the Bayeux-Calvados Normandy Awards for War Correspondents, and the

Clarion Awards The Association for Women in Communications (AWC) is an American professional organization for women in the communications industry. History Theta Sigma Phi The Association for Women in Communications began in 1909 as Theta Sigma Phi (), an ...

, among other prizes. In June 2021, it launched its first-ever narrative podcast, ''No Place Like Home'', about the theft of a pair of the

ruby slippers The ruby slippers are the magic pair of shoes worn by Dorothy Gale as played by Judy Garland in the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film ''The Wizard of Oz''. Because of their iconic stature, the ruby slippers are among the most valuable items ...

worn by

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in ''The ...

in ''The Wizard of Oz''. The podcast was produced by Cadence 13. Many of its stories have been optioned for film/TV projects. The magazine is represented by

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 employ ...

. The editor in chief is Seyward Darby. The art director is Ed Johnson.

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