LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Steve.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah.
FADEL: I've got big news - The Onion is back in print.
INSKEEP: Back in print?
FADEL: Mm-hmm.
INSKEEP: That sounds like an Onion headline.
FADEL: But it's actually true.
INSKEEP: OK.
FADEL: While a lot of newspapers are going digital-only, this satirical newspaper is going the other way. You can get a paper copy in your hands for the first time since it stopped printing in 2013 because of a drop in paper ad sales.
BEN COLLINS: It's the only newspaper left.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) And they consider themselves the world's greatest newspaper. That's The Onion's CEO, Ben Collins, maybe exaggerating a bit to make his point. He's a former NBC News disinformation reporter.
COLLINS: I had just quit my job, because it was a nightmare working in traditional news (laughter) and covering, like, neo-Nazis and stuff, and I'd read in Adweek that The Onion was for sale - like, aggressively for sale.
INSKEEP: So he and some other digital-media veterans bought it.
COLLINS: All of these companies that were being either turned into, like, AI slop or bought by a complete maniacs - I just didn't want that to happen to this.
FADEL: The Onion has been parodying news and current events since 1988. It later expanded its reach online, adding video and audio to its satirical news articles.
INSKEEP: And while the news isn't always funny, The Onion often makes it funny, using gallows humor in their headlines to catch attention.
COLLINS: I'll read you some more recent ones from this month. Zoo gorilla looks bored out of mind reading "Wuthering Heights." Conservative relative's description of Chicago clearly came directly from Dante's Inferno. (Laughter) Jesus, definitely can't read that one on the radio.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: There's a lot of them I can't say on the radio, but go on.
FADEL: OK. Well, one Onion headline goes viral after every mass shooting. It reads, quote, no way to prevent this, says only nation where this regularly happens.
COLLINS: The Onion does this really good job of distilling these things in American life that no one else, like, can say, right? They can live these very, like, honest media lives in a way that, you know, regular publications can't.
INSKEEP: I still remember the 2001 headline, 9/11 hijackers surprised to find selves in hell. The Onion's new leadership believes print media is making a comeback, in the same way that newer generations are buying Taylor Swift albums on vinyl. OK.
FADEL: Nostalgia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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