the onion is an american satirical digital media company and newspaper organization. it publishes articles on international, national, and local news. the company is based in chicago. it started as a weekly print publication on 29 august 1988 in madison, wisconsin. "the onion" started publishing online since 1996. in 2007, the organization started publishing sarcastic news, audio and video online as the "onion news network". "the onion" stopped its print edition in 2013. they launched onion labs, an advertising agency.