The Onion

The Onion is a satirical news publication that presents parody in the form and register of conventional journalism. Its site is operated by Global Tetrahedron LLC, which its privacy policy identifies as the publisher and describes the output as “online parody content, such as our newsletters, articles, editorials, videos.”

Format

The Onion publishes in news sections — News, Local, Politics, Entertainment, Sports and Opinion — with datelines, bylines and section furniture mimicking a newspaper, alongside cartoons, horoscopes and video. It sells a paid membership that includes a print edition, and runs a merchandise store.

Related Titles

Two titles that originated with The Onion are now separately owned. The A.V. Club, which by its own account “began in the back pages of satirical newspaper The Onion in 1993,” was acquired by Paste Media in 2024. ClickHole, launched as an Onion property, is now operated and owned by ClickHole LLC.

Sourcing Note

The Onion’s own About page cannot be used as a source: it is written in character and states that the publication rose “from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756” and “enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion.” Accordingly, this page does not assert a founding date, and the previous founded: 1988 value has been removed pending a source that is not the publication’s own joke.

A g-o-media ownership connection has been removed and corrected: The Onion’s current privacy policy names Global Tetrahedron LLC, not G/O Media. Also removed as unsourceable are the reach line (“tens of millions of monthly impressions”), and four sections asserting the outlet’s influence — that its pieces influence “how readers perceive real-world debates,” that its headlines “became shorthand” in online conversation, that its alumni spread its sensibility through late-night television and political speechwriting, that its headlines “appear in congressional speeches, court filings, and Supreme Court opinions,” that platforms “throttle satirical content” prompting it to “lobby for satire exemptions,” and that its ownership transitions “sparked debates over editorial independence and labor conditions.” None named a source, an instance, or a party.