The Onion Gets Sold, New Owners Keep Entire Staff
The Onion, the satirical news site known for its biting and often hilarious take on current events, has been acquired by a new company called Global Tetrahedron. The sale was announced on Thursday by G/O Media, the private equity-backed firm that had owned The Onion since 2019.
In a memo to staff, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller revealed that Global Tetrahedron is made up of “four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content.” The New York Times identified two of these new owners as Twilio co-founder and former CEO Jeff Lawson and NBC News former senior reporter Ben Collins.
While the headline above sounds like it’s from The Onion, the new owners did agree to keep the entire staff based in Chicago, a condition that G/O Media insisted upon. Spanfeller praised the team for their “hard work and dedication” and expressed confidence that they would “continue to flourish” under the new ownership.
Intriguingly, the name “Global Tetrahedron” is not a new invention but rather a reference to a fictional company that appears in The Onion’s 1999 book “Our Dumb Century.” In the book, the company starts as a small business in the early 1900s and eventually grows into a multinational behemoth, adding an extra layer of satire to the acquisition.
The Onion, which began as a weekly newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin in 1988, has established itself as a cultural institution with its unique brand of satire and comedy. As Spanfeller noted, its sharp wit and relevance remain “just as important and relevant today than at any time during its storied history.”
The divestment is part of G/O Media’s strategy to streamline its portfolio and focus on its highest-performing properties in terms of audience and revenue. In recent months, Jezebel and The AV Club were sold to Paste Magazine, Lifehacker was sold to Ziff Davis, while Deadspin was acquired by a European company known as Lineup Publishing.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
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