Gadfly Magazine was a periodical that was created in February 1997 and launched as a full-size print publication in January 1998. At the Utne Reader

Utne Reader

Utne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...

's Eleventh Annual Alternative Press Awards, in 1999, it won for best Cultural Coverage.

After the publication of the last print issue, in March/April 2001, "the creative forces behind the magazine" launched Gadfly Online, which was published for a little over a year. It remains an online presence, as an archive and guide to back issues.

The subject matter centers on popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

, including music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

, and film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

; the first issue of the magazine's print version gave a preview of The Matrix

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...

.

Gadfly Online published such writers as Andrew Loog Oldham

Andrew Loog Oldham

Andrew Loog Oldham is an English producer, talent manager, impresario and author. He was manager and producer of The Rolling Stones from 1963, and was noted for his flamboyant style.-Biography:...

, Tom Bradley

Tom Bradley (author)

Tom Bradley is an American novelist, essayist and writer of short stories. He is the author of The Sam Edwine Pentateuch, a five-book series, various volumes of which have been nominated for the Editor's Book Award, the New York University Bobst Prize, and the AWP Award Series in the Novel...

, Richard Abowitz, Nile Southern (son of Terry Southern

Terry Southern

Terry Southern was an American author, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style...

), and the rock critic David Dalton.