the Wired Press - "The Onion" Satire Site Folds

Friday, April 1, 2005

"The Onion" Satire Site Folds

Milwaukee, WC -- The beloved humor site "The Onion" has announced that it will be ending its 17 year run later this month, citing financial troubles and declining revenue.

The news comes to a shock to many fans, since from outward appearances the satire site seemed to be growing rapidly and climbing to a claimed readership of 3 million online readers and 990,000 print.

"They may have grown too fast," said Daniel Allen, professor of Rhetoric at Stanford University. "It may have begun as a fun hobby in 1988, but it is now a full fledged enterprise - a business. Businesses sometimes make bad decisions, even though they have good products."

According to the Onion's website:
"The Onion's irreverent take on world events, human behavior, and journalistic convention has become a staple of popular culture—and a can't-miss advertising vehicle for those looking to reach its young, smart, affluent audience."

And indeed the formula has worked on cable TV. Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" has been wildly successful, even garnering a recent Emmy award. Perhaps it is the television success that has caused a decline in willingness to risk their advertising money on a print and web-based satire site.

If the thought of squashing"The Onion" brings a tear to your eye, you may take solace in the knowledge that parts of it will live on.

The current plan is to dismantle the company and retire the name "The Onion" in preparation of a $17 million dollar buyout by another satire company and sometime rival "the Wired Press".

Many of the writers from the Onion will be absorbed into a new venture which so far has no name, but will be more focused on special projects for television and other media like the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update.

- Clark Brandon

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