By Jeff Bercovici
 
     There’s a newspaper where fact-checking is utterly unheard of. Where sources are routinely made up, and reporters are known to fabricate quotes out of whole cloth.
     No, it’s not the Enquirer, or the Star, or the Daily News, though, like those papers, it regularly runs outrageous headlines and makes scandalous allegations about business, political and religious leaders. A sampling:

"Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeroes"
"Congress Approves $540 Million for Evil"
"Disgruntled Ninja Silently Kills 12 Co-Workers"
"NYPD Apologizes for Accidental Shooting-Stabbing-Clubbing-Firebombing Death"
"Ad Industry Veterans Honored with Cola War Memorial"

    On top of it all, this paper has the gall to call itself America’s Finest News Source.
    Give up? It’s the Onion.
   Started in 1988 by two guys working out of their house in Madison, Wis., the Onion is now widely regarded among college kids, Gen X-ers and comedy writers as America’s premier humor publication, if not its finest news source.
    And if you haven’t heard of it yet, it’s for a good reason: They’re taking their time cultivating the franchise.
   "The Onion is extraordinarily precious to us, so we keep it close to ourselves," says publisher Peter Haise. His point is well taken: wicked humor is in no danger of going out of style any time soon, so there’s no hurry to cash in.
    What’s more, the Onion’s low-profile beginnings have given it an underground cult status that it retains even after nods from Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, and the New Yorker.
      The Onion has weekly print editions in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Denver with a combined circulation of 230,000, including subscriptions and distribution through Barnes & Noble and Borders bookstores.
   For those who can’t get their hands on a hard copy, there’s the website at www.theonion.com, which features all the content of the paper including film and music reviews and syndicated features. 
   The Onion’s website receives 500,000 unique visitors a week, for an estimated total of 2.2 million a month, or 15 to 20 million page views a month, says Haise.
   Those are big numbers for a guy whose only newspaper experience before the Onion was selling ads for the Daily Cardinal in Madison. Haise says he’s learned nearly all of what he knows about the business along the way.
    He’s managed pretty well. 
     "We really run the gamut from big national advertisers to the local bars and restaurants that we carry in our print editions," says Haise.
    Of the former, liquor and tobacco advertisers, including RJR Reynolds, J&B and Jim Beam, run both in the print vehicle and on the web site, as do record and movie companies.
    The magazine handles all the selling in-house, and will soon be opening sales offices in both New York and Los Angeles to build its national advertising base.
    Though there’s little talk as yet of launching print editions for these cities, says Haise, "we have plans to expand every one of the five core areas of our business."
   In addition to the newspaper and web site, that includes books and calendars, radio and audio projects and merchandise.
    "Our Dumb Century," a faux-retrospective of 100 years of made-up headlines, was the Onion’s first book. It came out in the spring and rode the bestseller lists all summer, reappearing on them before Christmas.
    "The Onion Radio News" is a syndicated segment that gets broadcast on more than 70 radio stations across the country, reaching an audience of 8 to 9 million people.
    Though the Onion may not always uphold the highest standards of objective journalism, there is one newsroom tenet that staffers hold sacred: the traditional divide between editorial and advertising.
    In striving to be subversive, the paper’s writers sometimes cross the line into downright offensiveness, at least as far as some people are concerned:

"Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying"
"Los Angeles to Siphon Water from Minorities’ Bodies"
"Fox Defends Airing of ‘When Jews Attack’"

     Though some advertisers will have nothing to do with it, the Onion’s job is to make people laugh, not to make friends on Madison Avenue, says Haise.
     "I just leave all content decisions to the editorial staff." 

-- Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.