RIP The Onion?
 

Not sure where's the best place for this, but I'll throw it up here.

I'm very sad, because it appears that The Onion has done the unthinkable and well and truly sold out. This week's issue has an article entitled "Miller Brewing Company Pressures Area Man to Drink Responsibly" - it seems to be a fairly standard, not-that-funny Onion article about the "responsible drinking" parts of ads and so forth taken to the extreme.

However, the very last line of the article is "Miller Brewing Company is the second-largest brewery in the U.S., with seven major breweries located across America. Principal beer brands include Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft, Miller Genuine Draft Light, Miller High Life, and Milwaukee's Best. More information is available at millerbrewing.com."

So essentially Miller paid them enough money to have them write a story and stick in a plug. This one is blatant; I wonder how many other stories are product placements WITHOUT visible ads at the end?

Anyway, I'm very disappointed. I've read the Onion for years, on the web and in print, bought their books, and pointed many friends to the site. But this is the last Onion issue I'll ever read, I think.

Bingle

If the articles stay funny, does it really matter all that much? Sure it is unfortunate, but what is the big deal?

I say if quality stays the same, and it is still free to access, whats the hurt? If the content starts taking a dive because of this, then there is something to worry about. Same thing with music and artists that "sell out".

Always hated that term.

I don't see it as selling out. I see it as ironic. They're doing it just like any real article would. You put the plug at the end.

Its hilarious and genius.

Meh, the Onion went corporate years ago.

About six months ago they redesigned their site to cram more ad banners on the page, about six months before that they started running their "pre-mercials" (comercials that you have to view before you get to the content). Lucky for me Firefox ad blocker takes care of both of them for me :D.

I can't speak for the Miller article, Av may have a point that they were trying to be ironic. On the other hand it may be a paid plug, but what's the big deal? Everyone's gotta make money one way or another. You've been watching sit-coms on TV with ads for years (not to mention product placements), and I bet you havn't turned your TV off for good.

It certainly sounds like a paid plug to me. Of course, I don't often read the entire article in the Onion. Just the headline and first paragraph. After that, the humor runs out. But, I do enjoy reading the Savage Love column, of course. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Actually, I have :-P I don't have TV, and I've never really watched it since Saturday morning cartoons, years and years ago.

Maybe that's why this got to me, I'm not as desensitized to the blending of content and advertisement as everyone else. And that, of course, is the problem - I don't mind companies putting ads above, below, and to either side of their content, but when the ad starts becoming the content, I fail to see why I should spend my time or pay my money to view that content. They're getting paid by the advertiser for each eyeball that sees it anyway, I shouldn't have to pay for the privilege of being marketed to as well. In fact, in a just world, I would be paid by the advertiser for viewing their ads.

Plus, there's the fact that the Onion, once upon a time, was a satirical, underground publication, happily skewering all the sacred cows they could find. Now they've become what they make fun of, and it's not funny anymore. They have no credibility or standing to make fun of the mainstream now that they've joined it. It's like Abbie Hoffman appearing in a Coke commercial (although not that extreme). They used to print social satire, now they ARE social satire.

It may be true that it's been like this for a while - I also use Firefox, so I really don't know how full of ads their site is. I just know that I used to respect the Onion (sort of like Jon Stewart - It's phrased as a joke, but at the same time it's some of the most accurate, insightful coverage you can find).

Anyway, I see no point in reading a publication that lost sight of the original point of people reading it, or in spending my time reading long advertisements. I have better things to do with my time.

Bingle

I still think it's funny. I read the print version, though, because I hate reading news articles on the web.

I still laugh when I think of their issue right before the presidential election. The headline read, "Republicans Urge Minorities to Get Out and Vote on Nov. 3."

Besides, the print version is full of ads, too, but I do see your point. Maybe I'm just dorky that I still laugh hysterically at least once a month because of them.

I don't think they've sold out.

To be fair, I'm a recent reader and can't possibly comment on the 'underground' Onion, but it's always been hit or miss with The Onion. Usually one funny headline or article in a trove of 'desperately trying to be funny' tripe. Usually two sentences into any article and I'm surrounded in 'unfunny.'

Yeah, that seems to be the case with me when it comes to the Onion. There really
doesn't seem to be anything really all that truely funny in it, and so I don't really
remember to keep going back.

The fact that they're 'advertising' a product doesn't really bother me. For the most
part, whatever I read, if there's a definite focus toward one product, or another site,
or anything to that nature, they're going to give credit to the site/product/etc at
the end. And if the Onion's getting paid to put that little blip at the end, whatever,
as long as it doesn't hurt whatever content they were already lacking.

If it gives them content, plus some laughs, plus some money, what the hell. That just
sounds like good business to me.

I think it's silly that people are complaining about ads in a free newspaper.

They probably had to plug Miller to avoid getting sued or something...money talks, you know?

Another thing about the Onion: I feel like it used to be weekly, and now it's not anymore; it's just when they feel like it. And I really don't like having to go through the mini-articles (I forget what they're called) one by one, loading a new page and a bunch of advertisements at the same time. Although, yeah, I guess I shouldn't be complaining because it's free, but it just doesn't have the same spirit it used to. I really don't spend much time on that site anymore.

They did, however, have a really funny article on my hometown:

Oh jeez. I just went to look it up in their archives and it requires a freaking paying subscription. Screw that! "Back in my day, I could look in their archive for free!" Seriously. Man, that was one of my favorite articles too. It was during the 2000 presidential race, with Gore vs Bush, and it has Gore visiting Altoona, PA and making fun of it up and down. Ah well, life goes on.

I'm with Averett on this one, I don't think it's selling out. It's fairly hilarious.

If however, they did... So what? My aunt's an artist and put "selling out" in the best perspective that I've seen so far. After about 4-5 years of doing the whole starving artist thing, the city asked her to do a project for them. Politically aimed and with a very clear outline of what she was to do, it paid well and she took it. For months to come, her friends were angry with her; calling her a sellout, etc. From then on, she got more commissioned projects that became increasingly less directed as her employers saw that they really liked her inherent style. Her friends were still calling her a sellout, but she was now able to afford a lot more time spent doing her own work, with better materials and more ideas. Eventually even the commissioned projects became kind of a "do whatever you want" thing.

If The Onion does sell out, I'll still read it. Chances are, if they do, they'll be able to do what they do now, but better. It's not like they hired the Miller writers to produce the thing.

Who cares? Honestly. So they want to make money. Is there something wrong with making money? Are they still pretty funny? Yeah. This doesn't affect anything.

-Lasereth

I thought the article was still funny and so long as the Onion's writers are still free to do as they please, I'll be a faithful reader. However, I didn't notice that the archives were inaccessible without paid membership, and that's slightly depressing. I'm sure I'll get over it.


Gender Guessed Correctly On Second Try


hahaha

They've always wanted to make money; they've always had ads. As I said up above, I have no problem with ads. But when the line between content and ads begins to get blurry - then I have a problem. For one thing, the Onion has been pretty scathing to companies before, but I'm sure Miller's PR board had to sign off on that paid article before it got published. So maybe they weren't as harsh as they could have been.

In fact, the Onion's entire writing style is built around making fun of people. Now, however, they're going to have to watch to make sure they don't tread on any toes in the paid "articles" they write. So you've almost certainly got a mellowing out of content, and some self-censorship going on. And that leads them to not be as funny any more... Even before I saw that tagline on that story, it just wasn't very good. Their content has deteriorated in general quite a bit since "Our Dumb Century", but these days it's even worse.

Think about the ads you see on TV or in print. There aren't any companies willing to be as outrageous about the things they say as the Onion was - some of their articles were pretty subversive. If they become advertisements, they're not going to be able to be subversive or outrageous any more. They'll have a little more leeway, because it's the Internet, but anything controversial that might upset Miller won't get written about.

Obviously, it's a humor paper. This isn't like the death of journalism or anything. But I think there are justifiable reasons to be unhappy with the direction of content - it's nice to have some independent sources of entertainment out there, because otherwise the only things we're exposed to represent the views of mainstream media. The Onion wrote a scathing commentary on draconian copyright enforcement a while ago - no big media company would express that view too openly because they've got too much to lose.

Anyway, it bothers me, and I sent them an email explaining why. I'm sure I'm not their target audience any more, so they probably won't pay attention, but at least I didn't go gentle into that good night.

Bingle

We had a similar conversation about Fark.com going corporate a few months back, where in there was quite a bit of bashing heaped upon fark for accepting paid links and not marking them as such.

IE: They would link to the same softcore pr0n site 3 days in a row. It was clear to most long time farkers that they were getting paid to advertise this site. There was even an article in Wired about the hubbub. In the end Drew Curtis claimed it was all due to "Gogi" (one of the Fark marketing guys) who had since been fired. In actual fact he wasn't.

But I digress.... the point is, all our favourite things that we loved when they were underground and just belong to "us" change over time. They grow up, we grow up, sunrise, sunset...yadda yadda yadda. The Onion stopped being EXTREMELY funny long before they sold out. So at the end of the day, I still read the headlines, but I find my humour elsewhere.

No free lunch anymore anywhere. Everyone has got to get paid somehow.

Maybe the writer just really wants to spread the word about the delicious fresh taste of MILLER DRAFT, the jewel of Milwaukee! For a pleasant evening with your friends or writing online satire, think MILLER TIME.

You've gotta look at all the angles here. They ARE the second largest brewery in the US, dedicated to making high quality brews for nearly two centuries! I for one don't blame them for loving the sweet Genuine Draft!

The changing nature of the internet means that the majority of sites are going to start advertising. Is it destroying the quality of the onion? I wouldn't know, I've never been an avid reader of it. But the quality would go down a whole lot more if they couldn't afford all the writers they hire.

well, at least it isnt as bad as thespark.com

Fark hasn't sold out to the same extent as The Onion, but the idea of fark.com selling out is a much scarier thought to me.

Heh.. Now that's good satire!

Oh wait.. were you being satirical? I'm not so sure now because the quality of the humor in your post really went down the drain when you started praising advertising.

It's not selling out. It's buying in!

Don't be too sure about needing ads to be successful: Mad Magazine was a good case in point.

For people who may be intersted and have not been to Onion lately, they made their complete archives available with no need for a membership.

The Onion's got to make money somehow. They've got writers to feed, and if they have to stick in a few plugs here and there to do that and keep themselves funny, so be it.

Yay! Thanks for the heads-up.
I need me some more sweet Herbert Kornfeld.

Jim Anchower is my dude -- Hola, Amigos!

Looks like the whole site is done over. Looks totally different than it did last night, and with all the content.

I think this has more to do with local support.

The Onion originated in Madison, Wisconsin and Miller originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Miller gives out free kegs at Onion-affiliated events around the area. I think they're just reciprocating the deal.

<-- Grew up in Madison and now lives exactly in the middle between Madison & Milwaukee.