IT’S A SUBTEXT OF BENJAMIN MULLIN’S New York Times article, August 16, 2024, “No Joke: The Onion Thinks Print is the Future of Media” that has Murdoch’s Fox Corp fearing a real challenger: Mullin writes, “The satirical site is hoping a newspaper with fake stories and fake ads will lead to real money.”
Indeed, The Onion ceased print publication back in 2013, no doubt feeling like Tom Lehrer who famously wrote “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” Now, however, the Trump/Vance onslaught of racial and sofa humor has given the genre new zest.
Here are tidbits about The Onion gleaned from Mullin’s NYT article, Wikipedia, and “The Onion: Our Annual Year 2023.”
Whence It Came. Wikipedia recounts, “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.” I am uncertain whether Wikipedia is being satirical in its apparent redundancy.
“Beginning in the fall of 2000 to early 2001,” Wikipedia continues, “the company relocated its editorial offices from Madison, Wisconsin, to a renovated warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan (New York City) to raise The Onion‘s profile, expand the publication from being simply a humor newspaper into a full production company, as well as develop editorial content in other media—including books, television and movies—and engage more directly with Internet companies as far as advertising revenue goes.”
Then Wikipedia offers a quote from a guy named Harvey Weinstein: “As lifelong New Yorkers, we’re proud to welcome The Onion to our city with this first-look deal….With their witty, sophisticated humor, they will undoubtedly soon be the toast of the town.”
Let’s not go there.
The Onion moved to Chicago in 2012. “At its peak,” Wikipedia notes, “The Onion had a print circulation of about 500,000 while the publication’s websites brought in more than 10 million unique monthly visitors.” It was freely distributed in 22 cities, many reknown for institutions of higher learning, a paucity in the southeast.
And Today. Benjamin Mullin writes in the NYT, “This week, The Onion began distributing a print edition for the first time in more than a decade and will soon deliver it monthly to everyone who subscribes to its site. The move is a throwback to the publication’s roots as a campus weekly in the late 1980s. But it is also emblematic of a growing trend in the media industry—trying new ways to attract and retain digital subscribers.”
“The print edition,” Mullin continues, “is part of a variety of perks that the company plans to offer online subscribers, who pay $5 a month, said Ben Collins, the chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron. The company plans to offer invites to live events, access to The Onion’s archive of physical papers and sponsorship of ambitious editorial projects, such as a video titled ‘The Perfect One-Pot, Six-Pan, 10-Wok, 25-Baking-Sheet Dinner,’ Mr. Collins said.”
I admire his restraint in avoiding the culinary term “crack.”
Some of My Onion Favs. Bravely facing the difficulties of the publishing business, The Onion acknowledged “Mild-Mannered Reporter Suddenly Transforms Into Incredible Unemployed Man.”
By the way, have you clicked on “The Onion: Our Annual Year 2023” yet?
And follow up in News for “Tips For Identifying AI-Generated Images.” Several of them: “Do a reverse Google image search to find the original dipshit who tweeted it out.” “Remember, unless it’s Gary Busey, faces shouldn’t look like that.” And “Ask yourself if the Dalai Lama could actually eat that many hamburgers in real life.”
“Sofa So Good” image published August 12, 2024, from “Our Annual Year 2023.”
Equal Opportunity Satirists. Though I suspect I’m among friends, The Onion pokes fun at all sides: “RFK Jr. Offered Multiple Positions In RFK Jr.’s Administration, RFK Jr. Reports.” And Tim Walz’s “I Have Killed, And I Will Kill Again.”
Above, perfectly normal-looking people (no slur intended) work at The Onion. Below, a montage of its Chicago headquarters. Images from The New York Times.
A Concluding Insight: “The Onion: ‘Americans Demand New Form of Media to Bridge Entertainment Gap While Looking From Laptop to Phone.”
And where did I put that phone anyway? ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024