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''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 Evan Ratliff (born c. 1975)Gillette, Felix ''Bloomberg Businessweek'' (Jan. 20, 2011). is an American journalist, author, and podcast host. Ratliff is a contributor to ''Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek,'' and ''The New Yorker''. He has written on ...
, and Nicholas Thompson. In 2018 the paper was bought by
Automattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005. Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gra ...
, who currently owns it. ''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

''The Atavist Magazine'' started as an idea between Jefferson Rabb,
Evan Ratliff Evan Ratliff (born c. 1975)Gillette, Felix ''Bloomberg Businessweek'' (Jan. 20, 2011). is an American journalist, author, and podcast host. Ratliff is a contributor to ''Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek,'' and ''The New Yorker''. He has written on ...
, and Nicholas Thompson, after a few drinks. After raising 1.5 Million in seed money from
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
, the first issue of ''The Atavist Magazine'' was published on November 1, 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 Teddy Weatherford (October 11, 1903 − April 25, 1945) was an American jazz pianist and an accomplished stride pianist. Biography Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 191 ...
, a jazz musician. Due to the magazine not being in print, ''The Atavist Magazine'' was only available on iPad's, Kindles, or Nook e-books. Along with the magazine, Creativist Software was also launched by the founders, which has been used by
The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...
, Pearson, ⁣The
Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...
and
Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...
. In the beginning of 2012 the multimedia Brightline, later known as ''Atavist Books,'' was launched in partnership with
Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman. He is chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company with Rupert Murdoch and USA Broadcasting. Diller was ind ...
,
Scott Rudin Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award Best Picture-winning ''No Country for Old Men'', as well as '' Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird'', '' Fences'', ''The Girl with ...
, and Frances Coady. The first publication was the
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
"Sleep Donation" by
Karen Russell Karen Russell (born July 10, 1981) is an American novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, '' Swamplandia!'', was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 2009 the National Book Foundation named Russell a 5 Under 35 honor ...
. The book is about a fictional world where
insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder where people have difficulty sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep for as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low ene ...
is fatal, and a growing problem throughout the world, with privet corporations harvesting sleep. The novella was well received. 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. Overall, ''Atavist Books'' published 2 books and 4 novellas. 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. In June 2018 ''The Atavist Magazine'' announced that they were being acquired by
AutoMattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005. Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gra ...
, the developer of WordPress. This was due to a lack of funding.


See also

*
Online Magazines An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the compute ...
*
Tech companies in the New York metropolitan area Technology companies in the New York City metropolitan area represent a significant and growing economic component of the New York metropolitan area, the most populous combined statistical area in the United States and one of the most populous ...


References


External links

* https://magazine.atavist.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Atavist Companies based in Brooklyn Online journalism Software companies based in New York City Automattic 2018 mergers and acquisitions Defunct software companies of the United States American companies established in 2009