The Toast
 | |
Type of site |
Magazine Feminist Satire |
|---|---|
| Editors |
Mallory Ortberg Nicole Cliffe |
| Slogan(s) | "A willing foe, and sea room" |
| Website | http://www.the-toast.net |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | 7 January 2013 |
| Current status | Inactive |
The Toast is an American anthology, humor and feminist writing website, founded in 2013 by editors Nicole Cliffe and Mallory Ortberg and publisher Nicholas Pavich.[1][2][3][4] The website is known for its parodic reworkings of classic literature and art.[5] Ortberg has described its target market as 'librarians'.[6][7][8][9] The Toast has also published on feminism and ethnicity-related topics, including a lengthy series on adoption.[10][11] Its name originates from the toast of the British Royal Navy hoping for "a willing foe, and sea room", which was used as its slogan.
Ortberg and Cliffe previously both wrote for The Hairpin, through which they met.[12] Ortberg's book, Texts from Jane Eyre, was a development of her writing on The Toast.[13][14][15][16][17]
Co-founder Nicholas Pavich, who was credited as publisher, left the site in summer 2015.[3] Ortberg and Cliffe announced 13 May 2016 that they are "closing" the site as of 1 July 2016.[18] They cited declining advertising revenues for the decision, and the difficulties of managing the website alongside their writing careers.[19][20][21] Ortberg had previously commented that sustaining the rate of material needed to earn advertising revenue was difficult: "I generally write anywhere from 2-4 posts a day, and they're very rarely blog posts, it's almost all original fiction or humor or essays and a lot of our site's traffic is dependent on that. Luckily, I enjoy it, but it can also be creatively demanding, and if we have a slow day, it's kind of my fault and if I half-ass it, we look stupid and boring."[22] The Toast will remain on the web, but additional content will be added seldom or never.
The final contribution to the website before it ceased publication was a column by Hillary Clinton, in which she reflected on the blog's importance to female writers.[23][24]
References
- ↑ Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara. "Nicole Cliffe and Mallory Ortberg’s The Toast Pops Up". Observer. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ↑ Greenfield, Rebecca. "The Toast's Recipe For Bootstrapping A Profitable Media Business". Fast Co. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- 1 2 Vargas Cooper, Natasha. "Publisher of The Toast Nick Pavich Is Out for Murky Reasons". Jezebel. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ↑ "The Nicole Cliffe and Mallory Ortberg Interview". Zulkey. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ↑ Phillips, Thomas. "“I feel like I was born for the Internet”". The Lumiere Reader. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ↑ "2015 30 under 30: Media". Retrieved 31 January 2015.
- ↑ Galo, Sarah. "Mallory Ortberg: 'If men show up that's great, but we don't need them'". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ↑ "How To Tell What Novel You're In". The Toast. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ↑ Woodiwiss, Catherine. "The Toast's Mallory Ortberg on Death, Faith, and Why It's So Easy to Make Fun of Christians". Sojourners. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ↑ "Adoption topic". The Toast. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ↑ Green, Elon. "The Toast Is Generating Heat Online; site is profitable after just 9 months". Ad Week. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ↑ Lange, Maggie (30 October 2014). "Mallory Ortberg on the Great Jerks of Literature". New York Magazine. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ↑ "Best Sellers, December 2014". New York Times. December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
- ↑ Ulaby, Neda (10 November 2014). "If Literature's Great Characters Could Text, They'd Charm Your Pantalets Off". NPR. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ↑ Busis, Hillary. "Breaking Big: Mallory Ortberg, author of 'Texts from Jane Eyre'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ↑ Kott, Lidia Jean. "Mallory Ortberg And Her (Small) Media Empire". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
- ↑ Cohen, Rebecca. "Sexts from Scarlett O'Hara". Mother Jones. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ↑ "We Are Closing The Toast July 1st". The Toast. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
- ↑ "Slate Staff: A Toast to "The Toast"". Slate. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
- ↑ Nelson, Sean. "A Toast to The Toast: I Love You, I'll Miss You, and I Don't Blame You One Bit for Closing". The Stranger. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
- ↑ Fallon, Claire. "Farewell To The Toast, Mallory Ortberg’s Utopia Of Feminist Humor". Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ↑ "The Art of Commerce - Mallory Ortberg interview". 0s&1s. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ↑ Clinton, Hillary (1 July 2016). "A note on The Toast". The Toast. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
- ↑ Gibson, Caitlin (1 July 2016). "The Toast has ended, and its fans — including Hillary Clinton — are feeling feelings". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 August 2016.