G/O Media announced Thursday that it has sold satirical news site The Onion to a group of digital media veterans.
The Onion, founded in 1988 as a weekly satirical newspaper in Wisconsin and later a website, is known for its parodies of current events. For the past decade, the same headline has been reprinted after nearly every mass shooting. “Only countries where this happens regularly are saying, 'There's no way to prevent this.'”
In an email to G/O Media staff obtained by The New York Times, Chief Executive Officer Jim Spanfeller said the company was “undergoing an extensive review of its portfolio, and our major sites… We plan to narrow down our search by focusing on the following.” viewers and revenue. He said G/O Media has agreed to sell to “a new Chicago-based company called Global Tetrahedron.”
“This company is made up of four digital media veterans who love The Onion and comedy-based content,” Spanfeller wrote. “The site's new owners have agreed to keep all of The Onion's staff in Chicago, something we insisted was part of the deal.”
In true Onion fashion, the name Global Tetrahedron is a winking reference to the evil fictional company featured in “Our Dumb Century,” a book written by The Onion staff and published in 1999.
The real-life Global Tetrahedron is owned by Jeff Lawson, co-founder and former CEO of the technology communications company Twilio. Its chief executive is Ben Collins, who until recently was a senior reporter at NBC News.
In an interview, Lawson said he had wanted to buy The Onion for a long time and had been working on the project at various points before partnering with Collins, who began mulling the idea earlier this year. .
“The world needs laughter. It needs satirical criticism now more than ever,” Lawson said. “That's why we think this is the right time and the right way to help The Onion continue to grow and continue to thrive. Frankly, I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't done this.” I don't know, but I'm worried.''
Collins said viewers have a long-standing connection to The Onion, noting that many of the website's writers and editors have been there for years.
“Our goal is to be stewards of this issue,” he said. “We're going to retain all our writers and work with the union to hopefully get them a little bit more money and give them some room to grow.”
The new owners plan to improve the user experience on the website and expand into multimedia, but otherwise want The Onion staff to continue the work they've been doing. Stated.
Mr. Lawson and Mr. Collins, who were in Chicago on Thursday to meet with The Onion's editorial staff, declined to disclose the price of the deal. Former Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman advised on the project, two people familiar with the deal said.
“The Onion is just an institution,” Lawson said, adding, “It should be preserved and it should be great.”
This website is the latest creation by G/O Media, which currently hosts some of the leading internet brands including Gizmodo, The Root, and Quartz. In recent years, the company has sold Jezebel, Lifehacker, Deadspin, and AV Club. G/O Media was founded in 2019 after private equity firm Great Hill Partners acquired a collection of websites that were once part of Gawker Media.
