The Toast (website) explained

The Toast
Logocaption:-->
Url:http://www.the-toast.net
Commercial:Yes
Type:Magazine
Feminist
Satire
Content Licence:-->
Owners:-->
Editors:Daniel M. Lavery
Nicole Cliffe
Current Status:Inactive

The Toast was an American anthology, humor and feminist writing website, founded by editors Nicole Cliffe and Daniel M. Lavery (né Ortberg) and publisher Nicholas Pavich.[1] [2] [3] [4] It was active from January 2013 through July 2016.

Content and target audience

The website was known for its parodic reworkings of classic literature and art.[5] Lavery has described its target market as 'librarians'.[6] [7] [8] [9] The Toast has also published on feminism, LGBTQIA+ experiences, and ethnicity-related topics, including a lengthy series on adoption.[10] [11] [12] At the site's debut, Cliffe and Lavery described its "stance," noting that "We strive to be intersectionally feminist. We are pro-choice. We are pro-queer. We are pro-trans. We strive to feature writing from women of all ethnic backgrounds[.]"[13] 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.

Lavery and Cliffe previously both wrote for The Hairpin, through which they met.[14] Lavery's books, Texts from Jane Eyre and The Merry Spinster, are developments of his writing on The Toast.[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] From October 15, 2014, to September 2015,[21] the project also included a vertical called The Butter; led by Roxane Gay, The Butter focused on personal essays and cultural criticism.[22]

Closure

Co-founder Nicholas Pavich, who was credited as publisher, left the site in summer 2015. Lavery and Cliffe announced 13 May 2016 that they were "closing" the site as of 1 July 2016.[23] They cited declining advertising revenues and the difficulties of managing the website alongside their writing careers.[24] [25] [26] Lavery 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."[27] The Toast website remained online after the closure, with infrequent updates, through 28 Jan 2018.[28] The last published article was a publication announcement for Hey Ladies, a book inspired by a regular feature on the site.[29]

The final contribution to the website before it ceased regular publication was a column by Hillary Clinton, in which she reflected on the blog's importance to female writers.[30] [31]

Archiving by the Library of Congress

In January 2018, The Toast was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in its web archives.[32] The completed archive consists of captures from September 19, 2013, to November 11, 2016.[33]

Notable contributors

NameRole Notes
Founder, Co-Editor,[34] Writer Work including "Link Roundup!" series[35]
Founder, Co-Editor, Writer Work including "Texts from" series, "Children's Stories Made Horrific" series[36]
Managing Editor (2014-2016),[37] Writer[38]
Jaya SaxenaStaff Writer (2015-2016)[39]
Editor of The Butter[40] (2014-2015), Writer
Resident Linguist and Writer[41]
Contributing writer[42]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bloomgarden-Smoke. Kara. Nicole Cliffe and Mallory Ortberg's The Toast Pops Up. Observer. July 2013. 11 March 2016.
  2. Web site: Greenfield. Rebecca. The Toast's Recipe For Bootstrapping A Profitable Media Business. Fast Co. October 2014. 11 March 2016.
  3. Web site: Vargas Cooper. Natasha. Natasha Vargas-Cooper. Publisher of The Toast Nick Pavich Is Out for Murky Reasons. Jezebel. 3 June 2015 . 14 March 2016.
  4. Web site: The Nicole Cliffe and Mallory Ortberg Interview. Zulkey. 3 February 2017.
  5. Web site: Phillips. Thomas. "I feel like I was born for the Internet". The Lumiere Reader. 11 February 2016. 3 February 2017.
  6. Web site: 2015 30 under 30: Media. 31 January 2015. Forbes.
  7. Web site: Galo. Sarah. Mallory Ortberg: 'If men show up that's great, but we don't need them'. The Guardian. 3 November 2014. 11 November 2014.
  8. Web site: How To Tell What Novel You're In. The Toast. 14 March 2016.
  9. Web site: Woodiwiss. Catherine. The Toast's Mallory Ortberg on Death, Faith, and Why It's So Easy to Make Fun of Christians. Sojourners. 19 April 2016. 3 February 2017.
  10. Web site: Adoption topic. The Toast. 14 March 2016.
  11. Web site: Green. Elon. The Toast Is Generating Heat Online; site is profitable after just 9 months. Ad Week. 14 March 2016.
  12. Web site: LGBT tag . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  13. Web site: Cliffe . Nicole . Ortberg . (Daniel) Mallory . And Here We Are . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  14. News: Lange. Maggie. Mallory Ortberg on the Great Jerks of Literature. 11 November 2014. New York Magazine. 30 October 2014.
  15. News: Best Sellers, December 2014. 11 December 2014. New York Times. December 2014.
  16. News: Ulaby . Neda . Neda Ulaby. If Literature's Great Characters Could Text, They'd Charm Your Pantalets Off. 11 November 2014. NPR. 10 November 2014.
  17. Busis. Hillary. Breaking Big: Mallory Ortberg, author of 'Texts from Jane Eyre'. Entertainment Weekly. 11 November 2014.
  18. Web site: Kott. Lidia Jean. Mallory Ortberg And Her (Small) Media Empire. The Huffington Post. 3 November 2014. 11 November 2014.
  19. Web site: Cohen. Rebecca. Sexts from Scarlett O'Hara. Mother Jones. 3 February 2017.
  20. News: Quinn . Annalisa . Evil, Antic And Modern, 'The Merry Spinster' Puts A Dark Spin On Fairy Tales . NPR . 13 March 2018 . 10 November 2018.
  21. News: A Buttery Farewell. Gay. Roxane. 2015-08-28. The Toast. 2018-01-19. en-US.
  22. On the Books: 'Bad Feminist' author launches The Toast sister site. Todd. Carolyn. October 1, 2014. Entertainment Weekly. 2018-01-19. en.
  23. Web site: We Are Closing The Toast July 1st. The Toast. 13 May 2016.
  24. Web site: Slate Staff: A Toast to "The Toast". Slate. 13 May 2016. 1 June 2016.
  25. Web site: 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. 1 June 2016.
  26. Web site: Fallon. Claire. Farewell To The Toast, Mallory Ortberg's Utopia Of Feminist Humor. Huffington Post. 14 May 2016. 3 February 2017.
  27. Web site: The Art of Commerce - Mallory Ortberg interview. 0s&1s. 3 February 2017.
  28. Web site: The Toast - A willing foe, and sea room. - The Toast. 2018-01-28. 2018-03-16. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20141114200040/http://the-toast.net/. 2014-11-14.
  29. Web site: Hey Ladies: We Wrote a Book! -The Toast.
  30. Web site: Clinton. Hillary. A note on The Toast. The Toast. 15 August 2016. 1 July 2016.
  31. News: Gibson. Caitlin. The Toast has ended, and its fans — including Hillary Clinton — are feeling feelings. The Washington Post. 15 August 2016. 1 July 2016.
  32. Web site: Cliffe . Nicole . okay this is fun . Twitter . 10 November 2018.
  33. Web site: The Toast . Library of Congress. . 10 November 2018.
  34. Web site: Contact the Toast . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  35. Web site: Nicole Cliffe bylines . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  36. Web site: Daniel Mallory Ortberg bylines . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  37. Web site: Meet Nicole. The Toast. Daniel Mallory. Ortberg. September 25, 2014. October 11, 2018.
  38. Web site: Nicole Chung bylines . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  39. Web site: Ortberg . Daniel Mallory . A Chat With Jaya Saxena . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  40. Web site: The Butter . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  41. Web site: Gretchen McCulloch bylines . The Toast . 10 November 2018.
  42. Web site: Emily V. Gordon bylines . The Toast . 10 November 2018.

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