One of the highlights of traveling to major cities is spotting that iconic green newspaper bin on a sidewalk. Inside (if you’re lucky to get there before they’re gone) is a printed copy of The Onion, the satirical newspaper that most of America reads online.
That bin may soon be seen on a corner in your hometown, thanks to The Onion‘s new Onion Nation franchising program. If your life dream was to write for the publication, keep dreaming. Franchisees essentially buy the rights to sell The Onion in their city and are responsible for the advertising, marketing, printing and distribution. As the Onion Nation says, “Leave the writing to us.”
This is an interesting move in the world of digital and traditional news media. Here’s a publication that would never be as large as it is were it not for the Web, and it wants to expand its print properties. Meanwhile, real newspapers continue their steady declines in every facet of the business: circulation, staff, advertising, the number printed pages and even physical size. And most real newspapers still haven’t figured out how to use the Internet (well, at least). Onion Inc., meanwhile, has perfected its online and mobile experience.
Yet The Onion has a true chance at expanding its network into middle-market cities such as Richmond, Raleigh, Nashville and those of similar size. The audience is already in place, to the point that merely having The Onion available in a mid-size town will become news in and of itself (expect Twitpics of the green bins). The Onion could bring particular competition not only to traditional papers, but many of the throwaway advertorials that float around on the free magazine racks near the entrance of grocery stores. Hip, young organizations will no doubt want to advertise in a publication whose main demographic is ["the coveted"] age 18 to 35 group. Heck, it might even be an honor to get a cold call from an Onion ad rep.
Contentwise, The Onion has long been protective of keeping creation in a tight circle. Articles submitted by the general public are sent straight to the trash bin. They don’t accept resumes. For the most part, writing for The Onion is a matter of “If we want you, we’ll find you.” I could see The Onion‘s non-parody entertainment section, the A.V. Club, eventually being localized in cities where the franchising effort proves popular. This could be a matter of Onion Inc. hiring or purchasing a pre-established local entertainment site (in Richmond, our hometown, that could be a site like RVANews.com or Richmond.com).
It’ll be interesting to watch the potential spread of America’s Finest News Source. So far, the company’s only major gaffe has been its abysmal straight-to-video movie. But beyond that, this is a strong company with steady growth and a quality product that could become even bigger and better. And as someone who has studied comedy writing for years, I hope to see The Onion in Richmond very soon.
-Jeff (@jephkelley)
07
A Culture Emerges
by FeedbackAt Feedback we are constantly exploring various demographic and geographic differences as they pertain to our clients. As a part of that, we also explore the various channels these audiences prefer, shun or flourish in at a given time.
There’s been quite a bit of chatter surrounding Twitter demographics and ethicity, however uncomfortable broaching the topic may be. One of the most interesting statistics to come out of it all are the levels of African American users on Twitter, because the figures are so disproportional to the overall U.S. representation.
A study done by Pew indicated that as of May 2011, 25 percent of African-Americans use Twitter as compared to 19 percent of Hispanics and only 9 percent of whites (note: these figures reflect the percentages of Americans as a whole who use Twitter, and not the actual makeup of the service, which is about half white and a quarter black).
A humorous but factual presentation by The Onion’s digital director, Baratunde Thurston – bluntly titled “How to be Black Online” – noted that while less than half of African-Americans have high-speed Internet at home, they dominate mobile broadband usage – nearly double that of their white counterparts. And the ease of Twitter (140 characters or less to update) and access to other people within the service makes it popular for use on mobile devices.
And lastly, a study suggested that Twitter adoption among African-Americans was based on the finding that they are more likely to have a greater interest than other ethnic groups in celebrity and gossip news. And thanks to the fall of MySpace, Twitter has become the online outlet of choice for celebrity drama. Plus, you can shout at them.
In my opinion, it’s the age of user as opposed to race that might be most indicative of how people are using Twitter.
The younger generations (teens and young twentysomethings) of Caucasians, African-Americans, Latinos, and others generally use Twitter as a public instant messenger. It’s more conversational than Facebook, and they can not only message their friends, but also tweet celebrities and read their tweets in real-time. Like Myspace, users can also personalize their pages with colors, designs, and different backgrounds.
Thurston also makes mention of the Twitter trending topics that dominate many evening chats (such as, #thingshoodratslove, #ghettohurricanenames, or #waystogetoffthephone) in the U.S., referring to them as, “blacktags.” It’s even a subject that has entered the halls of academia. From Slate:
These kinds of bonds are obviously not unique to social media – rather, these are cultural distinctions we are merely seeing reflected inside. The nation’s African American community is finding its voice and community on the web, and that platform of choice is increasingly looking like Twitter.
In coming months, we’ll explore ethnicity, age and other personal traits and how different cultures interact online.
-Brittany (@britgary)
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