The magazine was founded as a quarterly in July 2002 and was owned by Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy, and Tim Regan-Porter. In October 2007, the magazine tried the "
Radiohead experiment", offering new and current
subscribers the ability to pay what they wanted for a one-year subscription to
Paste. Amidst an economic downturn,
Paste began to suffer from lagging
ad revenue, as did other magazine publishers in 2008 and 2009. Cost-cutting by the magazine did not stem the losses. The crux cited for the financial troubles was the lack of advertiser spending. On August 31, 2010,
Paste suspended the print magazine, but continues publication as the online PasteMagazine.com.
Paste Media Group Paste Media Group began expanding in November 2023 when it acquired US-based news and culture site
Jezebel and left-leaning news and opinion site
Splinter from
G/O Media after both sites closed down, relaunching them in December 2023 and March 2024, respectively. It also purchased
The A.V. Club, another former G/O Media property, in March 2024. In October 2024, G/O Media filed a lawsuit against Paste Media alleging a breach in contract from the sale of
Jezebel and Splinter. In July 2025,
Paste spun-off its games section into Paste Media Group's fifth publication, ''
, expanding its reach to include anime, tabletop, pinball, and theme parks. Garrett Martin, who had been Paste'' games editor since 2011, became the new publication's Editor-in-Chief. In November 2025, Paste Media Group announced that
Paste 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 from
The A.V. Club. The shift resulted in layoffs. At the same time,
Endless Mode was merged into the games section of
The A.V. Club as
The A.V. Club Games, though no layoffs occurred. Later that month, Paste Media president Josh Jackson announced that Splinter would be merged into
Jezebel. 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. In May 2026,
Kotaku and
Aftermath reported that the games vertical was effectively shuttered after Paste Media laid off
The A.V. Club Games staff, including Martin. ==Content==