Who is behind The A.V. Club?
Editorial Director: Josh Modell
Executive Editor: Laura M. Browning
Editor: Sean O’Neal
Senior Editor and Head of Video and Podcasts: Marah Eakin
Deputy Managing Editor: Caitlin PenzeyMoog
Film Editor: A.A. Dowd
Food Editor: Kevin Pang
Gameological Editor: Matt Gerardi
Internet Culture Editor: Clayton Purdom
News Editor: Katie Rife
TV Editor: Erik Adams
Editors-At-Large: Kyle Ryan, John Teti
Staff Writer: Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Assistant Editors: Danette Chavez, Gwen Ihnat, Alex McLevy
Copy Editors: Laura Adamczyk, Kelsey J. Waite
Social Media Manager: Meg Brett
Social Media Coordinator: Julia Nelson
Web Producer: Baraka Kaseko
Contributing Writers: Sam Barsanti, Mike D’Angelo, LaToya Ferguson, Kyle Fowle, Zack Handlen, Will Harris, Jesse Hassenger, William Hughes, Noel Murray, Dennis Perkins, Oliver Sava, Caroline Siede, Mike Vago, Annie Zaleski
What is The A.V. Club?
The A.V. Club is an entertainment website. You can view it online by directing your computing device to www.avclub.com.
What does A.V. stand for?
“Audiovisual.” Back in olden times, a school’s audiovisual club would be composed of a bunch of geeks who actually knew how to run the filmstrip and film projectors, and were typically deeply involved in things like audio fidelity and newfangled speakers. We’re proud to carry on the tradition of people immersed in pop culture and entertainment media to a somewhat obsessive degree.
So the stuff you write is all fake, like The Onion’s “news,” right?
No. Not even a little. The A.V. Club is published by Onion, Inc., and has been a proud “sister publication” of The Onion since the mid-’90s, but The A.V. Club features real interviews, reviews, features, and other entertainment-related articles.
Where is it based?
We have contributors from all over the country, but Chicago is our home base.
Having issues with comments?
If you run into an issue or have a question about commenting, please reach out to our support team: Kinja HelpDesk
If you have an AVC legacy account, follow these instructions:
- To comment on the new site, create a new Kinja account.
- If you choose to create a burner, you will not be able to merge your new account with your legacy account once they are ready to be claimed.
- Once legacy accounts are ready to be claimed, you’ll be able to merge your AVC legacy account with your new Kinja account. We’ll have instructions for you soon, and we’ll make sure you have plenty of time to do it.
- If you have technical questions in the meantime, you can contact our tech team here.
You’re done!
One of your ads is broken / offensive / annoying / un-closable / taking over my screen, etc.
Sorry. It happens sometimes. Please email us.
What is your comment policy?
We love the comments section, along with the discussions and community they foster. We take the “club” aspect of our name seriously—it’s your site too. But here’s the deal: We strive to cover pop culture with intelligence and wit, and we assume that’s what brought you here. Abusive/offensive/obscene posts simply don’t contribute to that goal.
These are some of the things we find unacceptable:
- Flagrant attacks on other commentators, staffers, or interview / review subjects, particularly aggressive, insulting posts with no other point to make. Unacceptable: “You’re a dick!” Acceptable: “Only a dick would watch Con Air six times in a row!” Better: “You watched Con Air six times?! You should’ve taken IQ tests before and after to see how it affected you.”
- Offensive commentary on interview / review subjects, including but not limited to ad hominem thoughts on how they look, how they might smell, and exactly what you’d like to do to them in bed. Hate on their work all you want, but attacking them for their appearance is childish, and providing detailed commentary on your sexual reaction to them is, well, icky. If you did that at our party at our house, you wouldn’t be invited back.
- Racist, homophobic, or sexist remarks. Don’t assume that everyone else gets your sarcasm, irony, over-the-top tone, etc. Attack comments don’t get a free pass just because you “didn’t really mean it.”
- Blatant trolling.
- Blatant plugs for your own website.
- Offensive images or GIFs.
One more thing to keep in mind: We can’t be everywhere at once. You can help us maintain the quality of our community. If you see someone behaving offensively in the comments, contact us.
Be passionate, but be kind. Learn from each other. And remember there is an actual human being on the other end of the line. The comments work best when people do these things.
Will you review my CD / book / movie / poetry / pottery?
Maybe. Probably not. But maybe. Please bear in mind that we’re presented with an enormous amount of material every day, so it’s simply impossible to respond to every item that crosses our desks, much less review it. Items for review consideration can be sent to The A.V. Club at our Chicago office (The A.V. Club, 730 N. Franklin St., 7th floor, Chicago, IL 60654), but we absolutely cannot guarantee that anything you send us will be covered.
Don’t you guys have a TV show?
We do! It’s called The A.V. Club Hosted By John Teti. As the title suggests, it’s hosted by our Editor-At-Large, John Teti, who interviews celebrity guests and delves into the week’s biggest pop culture stories, each Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Fusion. You can also stream it on Amazon.
Didn’t you guys put out a book?
We’ve released three books under the A.V. Club banner. The Tenacity Of The Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment’s Most Enduring Outsiders (2002) collects dozens of our best early interviews with the longtime survivors of the entertainment industry. Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, And 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists (2009) features some of our most popular Inventory lists, plus a variety of new lists that never appeared online. And Nathan Rabin’s My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man’s Journey Deep Into The Heart Of Cinematic Failure (2010) collects some of the most popular columns from Nathan’s My Year Of Flops feature, plus a ton of book-only content.
I’m a big fan of someone you interviewed. Can you put me in touch with him/her, or pass on my idea for a book / album / show / film?
Sorry, no. It’s rare for us to receive any personal contact information for our interview subjects. In the instances where we do have this information, we do not give it out, nor can we pass on messages, project pitches, etc.
Can I work for you?
We very occasionally have job openings we’re looking to fill. See the jobs page for details. It updates as new openings become available. We are not currently accepting pitches from new freelancers.
What’s up with these Amazon links?
People often ask how they can help support The A.V. Club. When you click on an Amazon link on our site, we may get a portion of any resulting purchases. In legalese, that means that The A.V. Club is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In plain language, it means that you’re supporting The A.V. Club when you click through to Amazon from our site, and we appreciate it.
You didn’t answer my frequently asked question.
Really? Sorry. Visit our contact page to send us a message. Be sure to select “Technical problem” if you’ve encountered a bug or a broken link on the site.
