In the summer of 2013, a few months before its print edition shuttered, the Onion wrote an almost prophetic obit: “Print Dead At 1,803.”
Now, 11 years later, the satirical news outlet that dubs itself “America’s finest news source” is hoping to make paper great again with a return to print.
A print edition debuted this week in its home base of Chicago, just as the Democratic National Convention got underway and readers have raced to sign up for their copies.
Also this week, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis unveiled an ambitious makeover: the 157-year local paper will now be the Minnesota Star Tribune, expanding its statewide coverage and launching a sleek website redesign.
The two expansions come at a time of great upheaval and shrinking of the U.S. media industry and offer cautious optimism about its future. Newspaper circulation has fallen in recent years, revenue has plummeted and technological advancements have disrupted the market.
The numbers are bleak. There are 204 counties in the United States without any local news outlet; newspapers are disappearing at an average rate of more than two a week; and overall employment at newspapers has dropped by more than 70 percent since 2005, a report from Northwestern University found last year.
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And yet, the Onion’s announcement has gone “unbelievably, shockingly well,” CEO Ben Collins said by telephone, adding that an influx of new subscribers overwhelmed their payment system over the weekend.
“The numbers are crazy,” said Collins, who joined as CEO in April, although he did not share a figure.
Experts said that while the developments offer hope, the challenges confronting the industry are glaring.
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“I think we are way past the point of crisis and firmly into decline and fall, at least for the institutional news media,” Nik Usher, a professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego, said in an email.
“These developments are the exception not the rule, but that’s ok, because enough exceptions to the rule and you get a recalibration in how the news industry might reimagine itself,” Usher added.
The changes in coverage and expansion will aim to serve reader interest, the Star Tribune's editor Suki Dardarian said by email.
“Much is changing, yet we will remain committed to watchdog journalism and reporting on the challenges facing us in Minnesota, as well as speaking to the spirit and soul of Minnesotans,” she wrote.
The paper, which was founded in 1867, navigated choppy waters in 2009, when it filed for bankruptcy. It was ultimately acquired by billionaire and former State Sen. Glen Taylor in 2014.
Its rebranding comes at a time when the Midwestern state is enjoying the national spotlight, with Gov. Tim Walz's ascent as the Democratic vice-presidential candidate.
Dardarian said the paper had remained profitable “because we have a very civically engaged audience” and a committed owner.
Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed that these cases must be recognized as exceptions, and said it is increasingly undeniable that there is “no viable commercial future for many forms of local journalism.”
The Onion's decision to go old school was, in part, fueled by demand from readers, Collins shared. "In my head I was like, 'that doesn't make any sense. It's 2024. What are you talking about'?" he said of his initial reaction to the idea. But the internet has gotten more toxic, he added, with "AI garbage" and "violence and horror all the time," prompting the company to look into the economics of the venture.
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To power the print edition, the company will rely on subscriptions, ads, events and has plans for video offerings, said Collins. The irreverent media company has faced a turbulent few years with layoffs, cutbacks and ownership changes. The Onion was bought by Global Tetrahedron earlier this year, and its owners include Jeff Lawson, co-founder of cloud communications company Twilio.
“The coolest thing about this weekend so far are these people texting their grandparents who had stacks of The Onion in their basement saying: ‘the paper is back,’” Collins said. The outlet garnered a lot of traction among young audiences on TikTok in recent months over its scathing headlines taking aim at the mainstream media’s coverage of the war in Gaza.
“Look, we’re not The Washington Post. We do a lot more fun things than you guys do,” Collins said in classic-Onion style. “We’re saying, this is something that you’re going to really like, and, it can give us five bucks to make it every month. We’ll put that into your house. And I think that’s a very back-to-basics thing that people want.”
Pickard, however, warned that the future could remain dismal. “In seeking alternatives to the collapsing newspaper industry, we need a systemic fix to ensure that everyone’s information needs are being met and no new business model will guarantee that. Local journalism is an essential public service. It’s through this ‘democracy frame’ that we should be evaluating the state of journalism today,” he said.
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