logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2024
1h 1m

How The Onion is saving itself from the ...

The Verge
About this episode

The Onion is a comedy institution — and like everything else in media, it went on a pure nightmare hell ride in the 2010s. We could do an entire episode on the G/O Media calamity, but the short version is: A bunch of friends just managed to buy The Onion, and they're busy relaunching the website, going back to print, and, clearly, having a blast doing it. CEO Ben Collins and chief product officer Danielle Strle joined me to explain how that even works in 2024.


Links: 

  • The Onion sold by G/O Media | The New York Times
  • Sam Reich on revamping the game show - and Dropout’s success | NPR
  • Platformer’s Casey Newton on surviving the great media collapse | Decoder
  • Craig Silverman: Digital advertising’s structure has been weaponized | Digiday
  • US Warns a Gaza Ceasefire Would Only Benefit Humanity | The Onion
  • The Truth is Paywalled but the Lies are Free | Current Affairs
  • A newsroom expands and The Onion is out again on paper | Washington Post
  • Report: Nuclear War Sounds Fucking Amazing Right Now | The Onion
  • Google defends AI search results after they told us to put glue on pizza | The Verge
  • Jury awards nearly $1B to Sandy Hook families in Alex Jones defamation case | CNN
  • ‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens | The Onion


Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23989633


Credits:


Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Yesterday
The AI industry is at a major crossroads
This is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge and your Thursday episode guest host. It’s been a very big news week in AI, and a lot of it had to do with OpenAI, its DevDay in San Francisco this week, and the viral explosion of AI-generated video thanks to the company’s ne ... Show More
44m 2s
Oct 6
Rivian CEO on CarPlay, Lidar, and affordable EVs
I’m Joanna Stern, the senior personal tech columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and this is my final Decoder episode filling in for Nilay while he’s out on parental leave. My guest today: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe. This is RJ’s third time on the show, and it felt like the perfect f ... Show More
50m 38s
Oct 2
The good, the bad, and the future of AI agents
This is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge and your Thursday episode guest host. Today, I’m talking with David Hershey, who leads the applied AI team at Anthropic. I wanted to have David on because earlier this week, Anthropic released a brand-new AI model called Claud ... Show More
46m 35s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2024
Fox News is Back at the White House. Plus, No Joke, The Onion Buys Infowars.
Many of Donald J. Trump’s cabinet picks have something in common: a very close relationship with Fox News. On this week’s On the Media, hear about the revolving door from the conservative network to the White House. Plus, election conspiracy theories from Kamala Harris supporters ... Show More
50m 14s
Jun 2024
The Onion Knight Ft. Ben Collins
In April, The Onion was acquired by a new entity called Global Tetrahedron, revealed shortly thereafter to be a joint venture between billionaire Jeff Lawson and former NBC disinformation reporter Ben Collins, now its CEO. Ben joins Ed to talk about buying The Onion, keeping its ... Show More
49 m
Dec 2024
Max Meyer Launched a Print Magazine in 2024. Here’s Why. (EP.245)
My guest today is Max Meyer, the proprietor of Arena Magazine, a new quarterly publication exploring technology, capitalism and civilization. Arena’s aim? To “make it okay to dream in public again.” Max and I discuss why he launched a print magazine in 2024, WTF happened to legac ... Show More
1h 14m
Nov 2024
The Onion Is Buying Infowars. No Joke.
The Onion, the satirical news outlet, wants to buy Infowars, the platform conspiracy theorist Alex Jones used to defame families of the Sandy Hook massacre. Onion CEO Ben Collins shares why and John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, explains what it means to Sandy ... Show More
22m 51s
Jul 24
Has media freedom in the US collapsed?
US television network CBS seemingly handed President Donald Trump two major victories this week after announcing $16 million would settle his lawsuit against “60 Minutes” and cancelling the show of one of his fiercest critics, Stephen Colbert. But will this mark a turning point f ... Show More
23m 8s
Nov 2024
Will Donald Trump 2.0 destroy the planet?
When the COP29 host country opens its own conference by extolling the virtues of fossil fuels, you know you’re off to a good start. Keir Starmer didn’t let that put him off. He announced ambitious new targets for Britain’s carbon reductions - almost as if the world’s most famous ... Show More
36m 48s
Aug 2024
The Secret Succession Fight That Will Determine the Future of Fox News
For years, Rupert Murdoch seemed content to let his children battle it out for control of his conservative media empire once he’s gone. Jim Rutenberg, who writes about media and politics for The Times, discusses how a secret change to that plan by Mr. Murdoch touched off an ugly ... Show More
27m 12s
Nov 2024
Has Elon Musk changed the media forever?
Elon Musk is the world's richest man, owner of the biggest media platform and the new President's latest bed fellow. Is X now an arm of the US government? And what’s happening to the podcast space in America? Why can’t centrists find the influence that the Right wields there? Lat ... Show More
35m 41s
Oct 2024
Is the next Conservative leader trying to be the Tory Trump?
The membership voting has now closed on the Tory leadership race. By Saturday we will have a new leader of the opposition. What flavour will that conservatism be? Robert Jenrick released a video this week warning of conspiracy and cover up over the Southport killings. Does he no ... Show More
36m 2s
Feb 2025
When Traditional Advertising Is Dead
It’s no secret the media business, which has long relied on advertising revenue, is in crisis. It’s not a stretch to imagine that few if any of the major TV networks, newspapers and magazines - the old guard bedrocks of U.S. media - will survive into the next decade. BCG’s Neal Z ... Show More
33m 20s