Paste is an American monthlymusic andentertainment digitalmagazine, headquartered inAtlanta, Georgia,[1] with studios in Atlanta andManhattan,[2] and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication from 2002 to 2010 before converting to online-only.[3]
The magazine was founded[4] as a quarterly in July 2002 and was owned[5] by Josh Jackson,[6] Nick Purdy,[7] and Tim Regan-Porter.[8]
In October 2007, the magazine tried the "Radiohead experiment", offering new and currentsubscribers the ability to pay what they wanted for a one-year subscription toPaste.[9][3] The subscriber base increased by 28,000, butPaste president Tim Regan-Porter noted the model was not sustainable; he hoped the new subscribers would renew the following year at the current rates and the increase in web traffic would attract additional subscribers andadvertisers.[10]
Amidst an economic downturn,Paste began to suffer from laggingad revenue,[11] as did other magazine publishers in 2008 and 2009.[3] On May 14, 2009,Paste editors announced a plan to save the magazine, by pleading to its readers, musicians and celebrities for contributions.[12] Cost-cutting by the magazine did not stem the losses.[13] The crux cited for the financial troubles was the lack of advertiser spending.[3]
In 2009,Paste launched an hour-long TV pilot forHalogen TV calledPop Goes the Culture.[14]
On August 31, 2010,Paste suspended the print magazine, but continues publication as the online PasteMagazine.com.[3][15]
Paste Media Group began expanding in November 2023 when it acquired US-based news and culture siteJezebel and left-leaning news and opinion siteSplinter fromG/O Media after both sites closed down, relaunching them in December 2023 and March 2024, respectively.[16] It also purchasedThe A.V. Club, another former G/O Media property, in March 2024.[17] In October 2024, G/O Media filed a lawsuit against Paste Media alleging a breach in contract from the sale ofJezebel and Splinter.[18]
In July 2025,Paste spun-off its games section into Paste Media Group's fifth publication,Endless Mode, expanding its reach to include anime, tabletop, pinball, and theme parks. Garrett Martin, who had beenPaste's games editor since 2011, became the new publication's Editor-in-Chief.[19][20] In November 2025, Paste Media Group announced thatPaste would refocus exclusively on music coverage. As part of the restructuring, the magazine closed its movie and TV divisions, with future reporting on these topics to come fromThe A.V. Club. The shift resulted in layoffs.[21] At the same time,Endless Mode was merged into the games section ofThe A.V. Club asThe A.V. Club Games, though no layoffs occurred.[21][22] Later that month, Paste Media president Josh Jackson announced that Splinter would be merged intoJezebel. Jackson explained that while Paste Media had revived two inactive outlets, Splinter "had lain dormant far longer" than Jezebel, and that, along with ongoing industry pressures, led the company to combine the two under the Jezebel brand.[23]
Daire, Seth (February 29, 2008)."Spotlight:Paste Magazine".The Christian Imagination.Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. RetrievedNovember 5, 2018.
