The Onion Peels a Few Skins

Apologies for that headline, we think an intern wrote it...

By Fred Mills

We don't have to tell you that the world of print media is pretty fucked right now (which is why BLURT, after almost a year of publishing digitally, decided to re-enter the print world a month or so ago - we're pretty fucked in our collective head, so the fit is good). Although in the case of some publications such as Relix, about to go under but then getting an 11-th hour reprieve this week, are still hanging in there, others, such as Blender, which recently flamed out in a grand explosion of hubris and bad finances, are now dead. Ex-publications. Pushing up daisies. Singing with the choir invisible.

Today's canary-in-the-coalmine moment arrives courtesy of venerable satire rag The Onion, who released a statement this morning indicating it was discontinuing publication of its San Francisco and Los Angeles editions. Citing nosediving ad revenue, the Chicago-based company announced that this week's editions would be the last in both cities.

According to The Onion, "In both Los Angeles and San Francisco readership has actually risen despite our reduction in copies in recent months [but] the advertising in both cities has been abysmal. This stands in stark contrast to other parts of our business--both the majority of our print markets (Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Denver, Boulder, for example) as well as our rapidly growing digital enterprises (theonion.com, avclub.com, the Onion News Network and Decider.com--which are growing nicely and in some cases dramatically.... We have no plans at this time to cease publication in any of our other markets."

The latter comment may be true, but it's actually hard to imagine how the cited markets could prove stronger than population/media centers like San Fran and L.A., so to all the readers in those markets - don't hold your breath.

Of course, anyone who keeps up with The Onion lately knows that they've really been hitting their stride in the visual medium. As good as the written jollies can be, some of the content on ONN (the Onion News Network) ranks alongside the FunnyOrDie.com website's videos as among the funniest on the web - like THIS report on the new Star Trek movie (hint: watch for the vintage Kirk-alien clip). So we trust that in one form or another, the folks there will continue to thrive.