Conceived by University of Wisconsin students Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson, "The Onion" was founded as a weekly print newspaper for satirical news in 1988 in Madison, Wisconsin, by Keck and Johnson with their friends Scott Dikkers as cartoonist and Peter Haise as publisher. In 1989, Keck and Johnson sold the paper to Dikkers and Haise for $16,000 ($19,000 according to some sources). After the sale, Keck and Johnson separately became publishers of similar alternative weeklies: Keck of "The Stranger" in Seattle, Washington, and Johnson of the "Weekly Alibi" in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Haise left "The Onion" after 15 years and eventually opened a custom framing shop in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Dikkers, who originally joined the staff as a cartoonist, said he was de facto editor by the third issue and became "The Onion"s longest-serving editor in chief (1988–1999, 2005–2008).