Do the Editors of The Onion Read This Newsletter?
Aug 25, 2024
“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.”
The New York Times, August 16, 2024
See! I just told you in my Newsletter dated June 24, 2024 that print is not dead!
So, why is everyone’s favorite satirical news site going back in time?
Because, according to the tech guy who bought it, if Gen Z loves buying Taylor Swift vinyls, then they’re gonna love real paper.
The media company is including the print newspaper as a perk to subscribers to go along with online access. They’re also going to be hosting live events, access to their archives, and special video content.
This all due to the fact that, well… It sucks to be a journalist right now.
AI is really trouncing traffic to news sites. When you go to Google and do a search, instead of getting a list of articles with hyperlinks that take you to the news source (with the more reputable ones listed first, eg, The New York Times), as you did in the Good Ole Days of 2022, you get an AI-generated synopsis. No need to click anywhere!
This makes Google happy. This makes everyone else, who doesn’t get eyeballs on their content, unhappy because their clicks go way down and their traffic goes way down and then… Well, it’s capitalism: Advertisers withdraw.
So there you have it, folks. The Onion is back in print?
Will you be subscribing? Hit Reply and let me know.
Aloha,
MeiMei
Writing Tip of the Week: Read The Onion
Here’s one of my favorite recent headlines: Back to School Shopping By the Numbers.
Now have a good laugh and relax.
And if you feel so inclined, make those 17 employees of The Onion – and quite possibly your teenage child – really happy and subscribe.
Quote of the Week
“Unbelievably, not all Silicon Valley people hang out in an evil mountainside lair.”
~Jeff Lawson, cofounder of the tech company Twilio and owner of The Onion
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