The Onion has sold to a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced Thursday, TheWrap has learned.
The company, which fittingly shares a name with a fictional firm in The Onion’s humor book “Our Dumb Century,” is “made of four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content,” Spanfeller said in a memo to staff announcing the news.
Onion staffers are expected to be kept on under its new ownership. TheWrap obtained Spanfeller’s memo in full below:
“As I mentioned to you last month, we have been undergoing an extensive review of our portfolio with the intention of coring down to our leading sites in terms of audience and revenues,” Spanfeller wrote in his Thursday memo. “Today we announced great traffic gains for Quartz, but also, as part of efforts to sharpen our focus, we are announcing that G/O Media has sold The Onion to a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron. This company is made up of four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content. The site’s new owners have agreed to keep The Onion’s entire staff intact and in Chicago, something we insisted be part of the deal.”
His message continued: “The Onion, for over 35 years, has been an indispensable part of our country’s cultural fabric with its unique brand of satire and comedy that continues to be just as important and relevant today than at any time during its storied history. I would like to personally thank The Onion team for their hard work and dedication during their time at G/O Media. They are a talented group of people, who I have no doubt will continue to flourish with their new owners.”
The New York Times’ Katie Robertson broke the news.
More here — this is the email Jim Spanfeller, CEO of G/O Media, sent out today. And yes I’m told Global Tetrahedron is in fact a real company pic.twitter.com/AeqYY96yW7
— Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) April 25, 2024
The news came just months after The Onion union ratified a new contract with G/O Media, a three-year agreement that included raises to minimum starting salaries, increased parental leave and new AI policies. That agreement itself came just days after the Writers Guild of America East voted to authorize an Onion staffer strike if a new deal couldn’t be reached before the Jan. 31 expiration of their old contract, though a tentative deal was reached hours later.
“We’re thrilled about this deal that addresses our unit’s top concerns,” The Onion Union, a 36-member bargaining group representing the editorial staff of The Onion, A.V. Club, Deadspin and The Takeout, said in a statement following the contract’s ratification. “We’re so grateful to every person who showed support throughout our bargaining process. Our unit’s strength and solidarity, together with our incredible labor allies, got us here.”
Shortly after, G/O Media began selling off other editorial properties in March, with The A.V. Club and The Takeout selling to Paste Media and Static Media, respectively.
