The onion turned back to print. He brought more than 50,000 new subscribers

This can look like a joke in the digital world of digital today, but the satirical media The Onion made the jump to print a year ago.

He is paying: in parallel with his active website, the printed publication now has more than 53,000 subscribers.

The onion, known for its peak in current events, was initially launched as a campus every week on August 29, 1988 in Madison, WISC. He interrupted his edition printed in 2013 and became entirely digital.

But in August 2024, under a new property, the onion announced the return of a monthly printed edition, delivered by mail to subscribers.

Jordan Laflure, editor -in -chief of the onion, spoke with In this case The host Nil Köksal on the “rather unexpected scenario” in which they found themselves – and what their experience could reveal on the future of the media.

You seem that you and the team are surprised that you are here a year later.

Yeah, I won’t be bored with details. I prefer to focus on the present and the future, but my staff and I have come out of an old property that did not give us very positive feelings.

We are in an ascending place that only a year and a half ago was very unexpected.

What have the new owners said and did to get you there?

I mean, really what they have done, it is simply to allow us, not to remove too much credit, or for me and the team, but I have the impression that what we have done in the past year is to perform a vision that we have had for a long time: a return to printing, a de-inscribing on the old commercial models which simply do not work, and by that, I mean an overtaking on the banner.

I am happy to continue to feed Theonion.comThis is an important place for us as a brand, but to fully depend on a website to generate the necessary income to support us and the brand largely was obsolete.

The new leaders have done an excellent job in stopping the current media landscape, recognizing that we had to generate income directly from our readers rather than depending on a website.

In short, it works. We could not be happier on this subject.

Who are your subscribers?

We fauufil a little man. I believe that our greatest cohort from an age demographic point of view is 35 to 44.

For the anecdote, I also came to understand that the youngest also appreciate reading us on paper.

What else is different from its release once a month in the printed edition?

I would first emphasize that the experience of consuming the onion improves a lot when the context is the onion itself.

By that, I mean as opposed to the context of social media. I am proud of the work we do, I am proud of each joke that we publish – for the most part – and the experience of consumption on social networks pale simply in comparison.

We have a lot of jokes that benefit from contiguity to other jokes. It provides a contrast which in itself can be fun. Having this space closed, a closed room to enjoy the onion is just a much better way to consume it.

You know better that most tumultuous moments, even difficult, are certainly a fertile land for the type of work you and your team made in satire. What is this special moment, not only in the United States, but in the world as for you and the team? Is it easier or more difficult?

First and foremost, I would like to say that satire is an ancient art and these unstable moments in which we live, unfortunately, are not so unique.

There are unique components, of course, but these are not the first unstable turbulent political times in the history of the world, compared to the ability of a satire to comment.

The satire tools are robust, they are consistent and we simply continue to use them whatever the era in which we live.

This is the confident answer. The second layer of truth that I can offer is that it is actually difficult to satiate a government, a person, a man who drives himself in such an increased way [and] manner.

I think it is the responsibility of commenting on the distribution of characters around him. I am referring to [U.S. President Donald] Trump without saying his name, I pretend to be Voldemort. Commenting on Trump can be difficult, but we found ways to do it by commenting on the people around him.

Last year, the economist wrote: “For a publication devoted to teasing newspapers, the return to paper is the ultimate troll. If the onion succeeds, the joke will be on all the others fleeing the format.”

Do you feel like it’s the ultimate troll?

I guess this is the case. I hadn’t thought about it in these terms, and it’s pleasant to hear.

The truth is that, although one of the many purposes of our satire is to keep the traditional media to account, I will offer it to a personal level, I am in fact rooted for the traditional media.

As a new consumer, I need better journalism. We, to be a functional company, need access to good, honest and truthful relationships.

I also admit I have worked in traditional media myself that the failure of these organizations to find a business model that better supports this effort is a problem for all of us.

Although it is fun to work for one of the very rare ascending impression products, certainly in the United States, but probably also in the world, I think it would be a better world for all of us to live if there were other media brands with the same type of success.

Do you think they can learn from your model, or is it the type of content you produce that is what attracts people?

This is a good question. I do not want to ignore the fact that the onion is in a unique position, and we have had a lot of stars to align to go to the place we are.

I do not know that each media brand on the planet has an equal capacity to use printing as a means of consolidating its financial future.

That said, I think what they can learn is that if you can be daring, if you can find the resources to try new things, it is always possible to win or find an audience, even the year of our Lord 2025.