Gallery: 25 years of The Onion in pictures
But the morning after the singer's hugely discussed Video Music Awards performance, head
Onion
writer Seth Reiss stumbled onto a CNN.com account of the incident. The site's prominent display of the piece, complete with video, triggered the outrage that is so often the inspiration for killer
Onion
headlines and articles.
"I tried to watch, but I felt so embarrassed," Reiss says. "Anyone who treats it like it's something serious fills me with disgust. So this was my way of channeling that feeling."
Reiss' story published that day – a dead-on faux CNN explainer purportedly written by the site's managing editor on how the cable news network had hyped the story as it brazenly trolled for clicks – instantly went viral. It was vintage Onion: very funny, but cutting very close to the bone.
Headlines: Need a laugh? A collection of classic headlines
The Cyrus/CNN story – a real-time take on the news of the moment that rapidly became an Internet meme – encapsulates
The Onion
's aggressive shift from weekly humor newspaper to 24/7 digital satirist, all the while clinging tightly to its image as the righteous spitball thrower of the American media.
The irreverent upstart, which has 80 employees, has long had an outsize influence on the American zeitgeist. But its dead-serious business strategy might provide some insights into how the media can adapt to a rapidly evolving landscape.
The Chicago-based humor icon, which celebrated its 25th birthday in late August, has largely phased out its weekly paper over the past 16 months and dramatically picked up its pace.
As print advertising dwindles quickly, The Onion has morphed into a digital newsroom with a special emphasis on original video production.
"We're almost entirely digital today," Onion! CEO Steve Hannah says. "We saw that print was going to be a disappearing part of our business some years ago. So we started investing in digital. And our revenue and audience have grown."
Readers seeking The Onion's spin on the day's top news – the government shutdown, a new iPhone release, the Breaking Bad finale — can turn to a daily barrage of punchy 200-word bursts that are ideal for sharing on social media.
The shift to play off the news of the moment covered by other media outlets was driven largely by reader demand. The Onion's parodies have been heavy on exaggerated realities, man-on-the-street interviews and ruminations on the quotidian life. A story about Syria probably wouldn't have been in the lineup a few years ago, Hannah says.
"We had a hunch that the more we cover the news of the day, the bigger the audience," he says. "People were constantly looking for The Onion's take on a story. More often than not, we'd have nothing to say because we were doing our brand of comedy."
The Onion's unabashed embrace of video is reaping early returns, Hannah says. Driven by video ads, its revenue in the first half of the year rose 30% from a year ago, he says, although he wouldn't provide the actual figure. According to comScore, the number of unique visitors using desktop or laptop computers to visit TheOnion.com totaled 4.4 million in August 2013, up 18% from a year ago. Hannah says overall page views are up 200% from a year ago,
The Onion's digital transformation comes in the context of the massive transformation of the media business in the Internet era. Even with its distinctive approach, The Onion was hardly immune to the collapse of print advertising that has plagued so many newspapers.
At its peak, The Onion published and distributed its free paper in 18 markets around the country, using a mix of its own printing operations and partnering with local printers. Facing heavy competition for local ads and dwindling circulation, The Onion cut most of its locall! y printed! papers and distributes them in only three markets – Chicago, Providence, R.I., and Milwaukee. In late 2012, the company shuttered its national print edition, a subscription product that had about 10,000 customers at its peak but was rapidly losing readers.
Like other news outlets chasing digital ad dollars, The Onion is also steering more resources to video. The Onion News Network, created in 2007, pumps out newscast segments, often tied to print stories.
The Onion was one of the original partners in YouTube's premium content program, in which the Google subsidiary finances several Onion video shows, including Onion Talks (its version of TED talks), Horrifying Planet and Sex House (its parody of The Real World). Its YouTube channel has about half a million followers.
Perhaps the most dramatic departure from its editorial past is the creation last year of The Onion Labs. The "creative services agency" caters to advertisers who want "branded content" by creating original comedy video skits that weave in their products. Working with advertiser clients, the labs write, design and shoot video or produce other social media products that can be used as a standalone or integrated into a broader campaign.
The Labs are the fastest growing part of The Onion's business, and its revenue supports the company's other video ventures, Hannah says. In August, the Labs released Tough Season,a series of four-minute skits sponsored by Chinese computer maker Lenovo, featuring an NFL fantasy football geek preparing for the draft.
"It was a calculated risk," says Tony Weisman, CEO of Digitas, the ad agency that represented Lenovo. "But The Onion had done enough to show they understood how to do video. It's snackable content, and they're good at that."
Bending to the content wishes of corporate clients was not an easy sell for a newsroom that relishes its class-clown self-image. "It's very difficult to accommodate the needs of advertisers and be funny," says Scott Dikkers, The Onion's f! irst-ever! editor and now head of creative development. "But my theory is that you can find funny anywhere."
That The Onion brand still resonates with young, social media-savvy fans enhances its chances of succeeding in the digital world, says Joe Cutbirth, a communication professor at Manhattan College who has studied humor in journalism. "The Onion knows who they are. Their brand has really gotten out there. You see people on Facebook writing, 'Is this an Onion story?' That speaks volumes to how well they do their job."
NEWSPAPERS RIPE TARGET
The Onion was founded in 1988 by Tim Keck, then a 22-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two years later, he sold it to colleagues for about $20,000. Keck marvels at the way his baby has evolved. "The Onion got so much better after I got rid of it," says Keck, who owns The Stranger, a Seattle-based alternative weekly newspaper.
Long intrigued by publishing and parody, Keck recruited his friend Chris Johnson to start up a campus humor newspaper. The paper was badly in need of editing, so he hired Dikkers, who was then a contributing comic artist. The publication's name, Keck says, was suggested by an uncle when he saw Keck eating a sandwich with onion on it.
Keck, Dikkers and Johnson"just riffed off possible Onion headlines at our tiny office," Keck recalls. "It was one of the most enjoyable work experiences of my life. We'd have these brutal headline meetings. Someone would come up with an idea and we'd shoot it down."
At the beginning, Keck and Johnson handled all operational chores – ad sales, page layout, delivery.
The Onion's editorial hallmark — deadpan parody of newspaper conventions — can be traced back to Keck's early family life. His parents – both newspaper journalists — inspired an early interest in newspapers and the written word. "My house was filled with newspapers," he says. "That was my life, and it still is."
After his father passed away, Keck's mother moved the family from C! hicago to! Wisconsin for a job. The serious tone and "unwittingly funny" headlines of the local paper, the Oshkosh Northwestern, became the butt of family jokes. "Victory-in-Europe headlines over the smallest things, like public school lunches," he says.
The family began subscribing to USA TODAY for broader national coverage, but its colorful graphics and charts were also ripe targets for the satirist in training. "When USA TODAY came to our house, it was heaven," Keck says. "These were the two reference papers when I was thinking about doing a parody paper."
(Gannett owns the Oshkosh Northwestern and USA TODAY.)
'THAT NEWS VOICE'
At its heart, The Onion is a comedy organization. Writers and editors are trained in getting laughs, not upside-down pyramids and 5-W leads. The faux-journalistic approach, though integral to its editorial ethos, can be challenging for new writers to pick up, according to Editor Will Tracy. "Getting that news voice down is the No. 1 obstacle that impedes someone from writing here," he says.
Inherently ludicrous news events – Anthony Weiner's addiction to tweets, Dick Cheney shooting a friend in the face, the inevitable Miley twerking – aren't as welcome in The Onion newsroom as outsiders may assume. "We'd rather make up a ridiculous thing about a serious real event," Tracy says. "But Jay Leno's going to make a joke. And people expect us to make a joke."
The absolute commitment to mimicking the real can throw off more gullible readers. When The Onion named North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un the sexiest man alive late last year. China's People's Daily posted an earnest tribute to the pudgy strongman, complete with story and slide show.
Others who have gone for the fake include the Iranian news media, sports commentator Stephen A. Smith and Rep. John Fleming, R-La.
Not everyone appreciates being on the receiving end of The Onion's humor. Donald Trump once threatened to sue over an op-ed piece written under his byline, titled, "When you'r! e feeling! low, just remember I'll be dead in about 15 or 20 years."
When word got back to Onion staffers that movie director Michael Bay was offended by one of their stories, running a piece about Bay's penchant for movie violence became an annual tradition. "If we make a joke about you, laugh in good grace, because the alternative is not pretty," Tracy says.
Pushing the comedic envelope also means running the risk of missing the target. That has happened more than once.
A 2008 story about child abduction — "Kidnapped boy found safe, imagines kidnapped boy" – drew numerous complaints. A video segment — "Missing girl probably raped" – may have been intended as a no-holds-barred commentary on the news media's predilection for over-covering missing girls, but that doesn't make it easier to watch.
This year, Hannah issued a rare apology after an Onion tweet referred to 9-year-old Best Actress Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis with an ugly slur and triggered an onslaught of criticism on social media. "It was crude and offensive — not to mention inconsistent with The Onion's commitment to parody and satire, however biting," he wrote. Tracy says the reference was "exactly the opposite" of what The Onion thought of her – "a deeply ironic joke" that just didn't work.
Lesson learned? "Stay away from kids," Tracy says.
Despite the business overhaul, The Onion promises its humorous heart and sharp tongue will remain unaffected. "We're not pro-this or anti-that," Hannah says. "Tu Stultus Es. You are dumb. That's our motto in Latin. We've been aggressively anti-dumb. When you do something dumb, you're going feel the wrath of The Onion."
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