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The Onion
Type	Parody newspaper
Format	Broadsheet (also radio, video and websites)
Owner	Onion, Inc.
Editor	Scott Dikkers
Founded	1988
Headquarters	536 Broadway 10th Floor New York, NY 10012 United States
Circulation	599,000
Website: theonion.com

The Onion is an award-winning parody newspaper published weekly in print and online. It features satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news as well as an entertainment newspaper and website known as The A.V. Club. It claims a national print circulation of 599,000 and says 67 percent of its Web site viewers are between 18 and 44 years old.^[1]

The Onion's articles comment on current events, both real and imagined. It parodies traditional newspaper features, such as editorials, man-on-the-street interviews, and stock quotes, as well as traditional newspaper layout and AP-style editorial voice.

A second part of the newspaper is a non-satirical entertainment section called The A.V. Club that features interviews and reviews of various newly-released media, and other weekly features. The print edition also contains previews of upcoming live entertainment specific to cities where a print edition is published. The online incarnation of The A.V. Club has its own domain, includes its own regular features (including the syndicated weekly sex advice column Savage Love), A.V. Club blogs and reader forums, and presents itself as a separate entity from The Onion itself.

Contents 1 History 2 Distribution 3 Regular features 4 Reporters and editors 5 Film 6 The Onion taken seriously 7 Presidential Seal controversy 8 Books 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

The Onion was founded in 1988 and originally published in Madison, Wisconsin by two juniors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson; they sold it to colleagues the following year. The Onion's success was limited to the Madison and Milwaukee areas until it began its website in 1996. In 2000 as the publication had broken through to the mass market, The Onion was approached by Comedy Central for a buyout that would broaden the scope and reach of The Onion's brand of satire into other forms of media. While the editorial staff was enthusiastic about the move, the deal was ultimately scuttled by then-owner Peter Haise when his negotiations with Comedy Central fell flat and alienated Comedy Central's management. Despondent over the botched deal, the editorial staff threatened to leave en masse for New York City with or without The Onion affiliation. In a compromise motivated to keep the company alive, in early 2001 the company relocated its offices to New York City.

The paper's founders went on to become publishers of other alternative weeklies: Keck of the Seattle weekly The Stranger and Johnson of Albuquerque's Weekly Alibi.

The Onion's printed edition is distributed free in Madison, Milwaukee, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver/Boulder, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin,and Washington, D.C.^[1][2]. It is also sold in bookstores worldwide, including the United Kingdom, and is available by mail through paid subscription.

Regular features of The Onion include:

• "STATshot", an illustrated statistical snapshot which parodies "USA Today Snapshots"
• The "Infograph" (a.k.a. "Infographic"), with a bulleted list of items on a theme.
• Point-Counterpoint
• Guest opinion pieces and regular columnists
• Bizarre horoscopes
• "The ONION in History": a front page produced in the look of newspapers of an earlier era, from the book "Our Dumb Century"
• "In the News" photograph and caption with no accompanying story (such as "Frederick's of Anchorage Debuts Crotchless Long Underwear", "National Association Advances Colored Person", and "Owls are Assholes")
• "American Voices" (formerly called "What Do You Think?"), a mock vox pop survey on a topical current event. There are six respondents for each topic who seem to have been chosen intentionally to represent a diverse selection of ages, races, and socio-economic classes. Although their names and professions change every week, photos of the same six people are always used. One of them is often described as a systems analyst.
• An editorial cartoon drawn by "Kelly". The comic is drawn in a sarcastic style which parodies right-wing cartoons.

The website was redesigned in 2005:

• All archives were made free, and Onion Premium, a failed attempt at a paid-subscriber model section of the site, was discontinued.
• "What Do You Think?" became "American Voices," with the question updated daily, and only three responders for each question
• "In the News" was retitled "From the Print Edition"
• The Onion began publishing web-only content on a daily basis, such as a daily fictional stock market analysis titled "Stock Watch" (one of which appears in the print edition every week), a web opinion poll titled "QuickPoll" (since discontinued), "National News Highlights" of three regional stories, The Onion Weekender (a parody of Parade Magazine) and The Onion Magazine (a parody of The New York Times Magazine), and The President's Weekly Radio Address.
• The nationally syndicated Onion Radio News, a brief audio clip read by anchor Doyle Redland, became a daily feature. In early 2006, Onion Radio News podcast was launched, and quickly shot to #1 on the iTunes list of top podcasts.
• A sports section was introduced, having archival material from old issues in addition to new articles (such as "Matt Leinart Wins Beauty Portion of 2006 NFL Draft") and rotating headlines such as "New York Rangers Honor Proud Madison Square Garden Tradition by Losing".
• On Friday there is a new Onion Weekender front cover, depicting a Sunday magazine supplement.

The Onion website is updated every day, most significantly on Tuesday afternoons, and The Onion newspaper is distributed on Wednesdays.

The Onion's fictional editor is T. Herman Zweibel (Zwiebel is German for onion), who has "held the position since 1901" and is rather insane; the real editor is currently Scott Dikkers, the managing editor is Peter Koechley, and the current writing staff comprises Dan Guterman, Megan Ganz, Mike DiCenzo, Todd Hanson, Maria Schneider, John Krewson, Joe Garden, and Chris Karwowski, as well as the graphics work of Mike Loew and Chad Nackers. Past writers have included Mark Banker, Max Cannon, Tom Scharpling, Amie Barrodale, Rich Dahm, Tim Harrod, Janet Ginsburg, David Javerbaum, Ben Karlin, Carol Kolb, Robert Siegel and Jack Szwergold. The Onion does not accept unsolicited freelance contributions.

The Onion publishes several columns by (fictional) regular and guest writers. The regular contributors include:

• Jim Anchower, a slacker and stoner with a different job every few weeks, whose musical tastes are stuck in 1970s rock and roll.
• Jean Teasdale, an overweight nerdish woman with kitsch tastes, whose constantly upbeat attitude always finds the bright side of her otherwise depressing white trash life. Her column, "A Room of Jean's Own," was originally called "The Onion Fat Lady."
• Smoove B, a smooth talking ladies' man.
• Jackie Harvey, a clueless celebrity spotter.
• Herbert Kornfeld, Accounts Receivable Supervisor, an accountant who was raised on the streets and speaks in gangsta rap-isms and ebonics
• Larry Groznic, an overweight fanboy.
• Gorzo the Mighty, the Emperor of the Universe, villain in the style of 1930s science fiction.
• Department Head Rawlings, the mysterious head of an unnamed organization of international spies.
• Amber Richardson, an illiterate and negligent teenage mother.

In 2003, Fox Searchlight Pictures was onboard to release a movie written by The Onion staff. Tentatively titled The Untitled Onion Movie, it was to be directed by music video directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire and written by then Onion editor Robert Siegel and writer Todd Hanson. After delays and middling previews to test audiences, the film was shelved and eventually dropped by Fox. At some point in the process, directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire and writer Robert Siegel walked away from the project.

In 2006, New Regency Productions took over the production of the troubled project. As of 2006 the film's fate is still in limbo with studio heads still at odds with current Onion management as to what to do with the film. No new director has been named to helm the project and Mr. Show star Scott Aukerman has been recruited to help rescue the project. Reportedly the studio would like to keep one hour of already completed footage in the final film and film new material to flesh it out, while current Onion management is rumored to be leaning towards scrapping all shot footage and starting from scratch.

In a March 15, 2007 interview Scott Aukerman was quoted as saying “Do people still use the term dead ‘standstill’?” in response to the question, “Scott, how is the Onion movie coming along?” Sometime in March 2007 after that interview was printed, the listing for The Onion at the Internet Movie Database mysteriously disappeared.^[3] Additionally, Onion, Inc. President Sean Mills has indicated The Onion is no longer associated with the film project.^[4]

In March 2007, The Onion launched The Onion News Network, a daily web video broadcast that had been in production since sometime in mid-2006 with a story about an illegal immigrant taking an executive's $800,000 a year job for $600,000 a year. The Onion has reportedly invested about $1 million in the production and has hired 15 new staffers to focus on the production of this video broadcast.^[5]

Upon occasion the straight-faced manner in which The Onion reports non-existent happenings has resulted in outside parties mistakenly citing Onion stories as real news.

• An article on Harry Potter inciting kids to practice witchcraft was believed by many to be real and was forwarded by many "concerned Christians."[1] Columnist Ellen Makkai and others who believe the Harry Potter books "recruit" children to Satanism have also been taken in by the article, using quotes from it as "evidence" for their claims. [2]

• In 1998, controversial minister Fred Phelps posted the Onion article "'98 Homosexual-Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal" on his "God Hates Fags" website as "proof" that gay people were indeed actively trying to "recruit" others.^{[citation needed]}

• On June 7, 2002, Reuters reported that the Beijing Evening News republished, in the international news page of its June 3 edition, translated portions of "Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built". The story discusses the U.S. Congress's threats to leave Washington for Memphis, Tennessee or Charlotte, North Carolina unless Washington, D.C. built them a new Capitol building with a retractable dome. The article is a parody of U.S. sports franchises' threats to leave their home city unless new stadiums are built for them. The Evening News is Beijing's most popular newspaper, claiming a circulation of 1.25 million.^{[citation needed]} Evening News later retracted the article, responding that some American newspapers "lie intentionally to make money."^{[citation needed]}

• In late March 2004, Deborah Norville of MSNBC presented as genuine an article entitled "Study: 58 Percent Of U.S. Exercise Televised".^{[citation needed]}

• The Danish television station TV 2 posted a story that took the Onion article titled "Sean Penn Demands To Know What Asshole Took SeanPenn@ gmail.com" [3] seriously.[4]

• An article of The Onion called "Hamas Calls For 'Giant Summit' With All Israelis" [5] (published February 15, 2006) was, by chance, very similar to an Haaretz (Israeli newspaper) item about Hamas offering a big 'once and for all' truce with Israelis, published March 2006.^{[citation needed]}

This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

In September 2005, the assistant counsel to President George W. Bush, Grant M. Dixton, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to The Onion, asking the paper to stop using the presidential seal, which is used in an online segment poking fun at the President through parodies of his weekly radio address. The law governing the Presidential Seal is contained in TITLE 18, 713 and contains the section:

Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. (emphasis added)

This section would seem to allow the use of the presidential seal by The Onion. However, by Executive Order, President Richard Nixon specifically enumerated the allowed uses of the Presidential Seal which is more restrictive than the above title (Ex. Ord. No. 11649), but which allows for exceptions to be granted upon formal request.

The Onion has responded with a letter asking for formal use of the Seal in accordance with the Executive Order, while still declaring that the use is legitimate under Title 18, 713.

The letter written by Rochelle H. Klaskin, The Onion's lawyer, is quoted in the New York Times as saying "It is inconceivable that anyone would think that, by using the seal, The Onion intends to 'convey... sponsorship or approval' by the president," referring to Title 18, 713, but then went on to ask that the letter be considered a formal application asking for permission to use the seal.

• Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source (1999, ISBN 0-609-80461-8)
• The Onion's Finest News Reporting, Volume 1 (2000, ISBN 0-609-80463-4)
• Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of The Onion (2001, ISBN 0-609-80834-6)
• The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives Volume 13 (2002, ISBN 1-4000-4724-2)
• "Relations Break Down Between U.S. and Them": The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives Volume 14 (2003, ISBN 1-4000-4961-X)
• "Fanfare for the Area Man": The Onion Ad Nauseam Complete News Archives Volume 15 (2004, ISBN 1-4000-5455-9)
• "Embedded in America": The Onion Ad Nauseam Complete News Archives Volume 16 (2005, ISBN 1-4000-5456-7)
• "Homeland Insecurity": The Onion Ad Nauseam Complete News Archives, Volume 17 (2006, ISBN 0-307-33984-X)

• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report
• The Chaser, an Australian satirical newspaper
• University of Psychogenic Fugue
• The Second Supper
• Weekend Update
• The Weekly Week
• Private Eye, a leading British satirical magazine

• Official website
• The Staff of "The Onion" Bio at Greater Talent Network (Speakers Bureau)
• The Onion A.V. Club
• Revamping The Onion
• Onion editor Carol Kolb and writer Joe Garden are interviewed on The Sound of Young America
• The Onion: Funny site is no joke, a Business 2.0 profile
• Onion Creators “Clearly” Not Just A Bunch Of Little Capitalists Like Everybody Else
• Peeling the Onion, a video profile by CBC News: The Hour
• U.S. satire tricks Beijing paper, a June 2002 San Francisco Chronicle article
• 'Onion' to Launch San Francisco Print Edition
• Area Satirists Stay in the Picture
• Turning Fake News Into Real Careers
• Wisconsin Wise Guys Plot TV Takeover
• The Untitled Onion Movie
• From the Onion to Comedy Central to the Oscars
• Viacom and The Onion: Parody or Deal?
• 2001 Internal Memo to TheOnion.com Employees
• A Funny Thing: Detailed 2005 Forbes article about the publication's business history and financial turmoil after their NYC move
• Issue #37·34: Coverage of September 11, 2001
• A Special Thing Podcast: Friday, May 5, 2006 Podcast radio show that discusses issues with "The Onion" movie production