The Onion

For the building sometimes nicknamed "The Onion", see City Hall, London (Southwark). For other uses, see Onion (disambiguation).

The Onion
Cover of the January 18–24, 2001, issue
TypeSatirical newspaper
FormatWebsite
Owner(s)Global Tetrahedron
Founder(s)
EditorChad Nackers
FoundedAugust 29, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-08-29)
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.[1]
Ceased publication2013 (print)
RelaunchedAugust 16, 2024 (print)
HeadquartersChicago, Illinois, U.S.
Websitewww.theonion.com

The Onion is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 29, 1988, in Madison, Wisconsin.[1] The Onion began publishing online in early 1996. In 2007, they began publishing satirical news audio and video online as the Onion News Network. In 2013, The Onion stopped publishing its print edition and launched Onion Labs, an advertising agency.[2][3] The Onion was then acquired three times, first by Univision in 2016, which later merged The Onion and its several other publications into those of Gizmodo Media Group.[4] This unit was sold in 2019 to Great Hill Partners, forming a new company named G/O Media.[5] G/O Media then sold The Onion in April 2024 to Global Tetrahedron, a firm newly created by former Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, which revived the print edition in August that year.[6][7]

The Onion's articles cover real and fictional current events, parodying the tone and format of traditional news organizations with stories, editorials, and street interviews using a traditional news website layout and an editorial voice modeled after that of the Associated Press. The publication's humor often depends on presenting mundane, everyday events as newsworthy, surreal, or alarming, such as "Rotation Of Earth Plunges Entire North American Continent Into Darkness".[8] In 1999, comedian Bob Odenkirk praised the publication as "the best comedy writing in the country".[9]

The Onion previously ran The A.V. Club, a non-satirical entertainment and pop culture publication founded in 1993 that contains interviews and reviews of newly released media and other weekly features, and ClickHole, a satirical website founded in 2014 which parodies clickbait websites. ClickHole was acquired by Cards Against Humanity in February 2020 while The A.V. Club was acquired by Paste Magazine in March 2024.[10][11]

In November 2024, through a bankruptcy auction, The Onion attempted to purchase InfoWars, a conspiratorial far-right fake news website founded by Alex Jones, with the intent of turning the site into a parody of Jones's conspiracy theories. The purchase was sanctioned by families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who had successfully sued Jones for defamation.[12] The purchase has been stayed in the bankruptcy court pending a review of the bidding process.[13]

  1. ^ a b Marino, Nick (July 22, 2009). "Six Insights From an Editor at The Onion". Paste Magazine. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  2. ^ "Onion Labs". Archived from the original on March 31, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  3. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (September 5, 2013). "A Disturbance in the Force". Slate. Archived from the original on September 27, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT 2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Onion, The. "Rotation Of Earth Plunges Entire North American Continent Into Darkness". The Onion. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  9. ^ Dionne, Alexandria (January 8, 1999). "The Onion moves to the Internet". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  10. ^ "Cards Against Humanity Bought Clickhole". BuzzFeed News. February 3, 2020. Archived from the original on February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  11. ^ "Wow. Clickhole". Slate. June 9, 2015. Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  12. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (November 14, 2024). "The Onion Says It Has Bought Infowars, Alex Jones's Site, Out of Bankruptcy". The New York Times.
  13. ^ Collins, Dave (November 15, 2024). "What happens next in The Onion's effort to buy Alex Jones' Infowars". apnews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved November 15, 2024.