The Onion: Challenging Convention

The Venture

It all started with coupons -- and it’s become a multi-million dollar, multi-platform media empire. It’s The Onion: A worldwide source for witty news satire. The Onion was started by a few college kids at the University of Wisconsin in the late ‘80s. Now it’s so engrained in our culture that we point out when the real news “looks like an Onion headline.” The Onion has both observed the world, and changed it -- and become a must-read for millions of people every day. The Onion has had a profound influence on the business of comedy, and survived and thrived in a chaotic media landscape. This is a story about a company that is unafraid to challenge convention, and is adamant about honoring its vision above everything else.

The Venture is hosted by Ashley Milne-Tyte.

This episode features:

Mike Sacks, contributor, Vanity Fair, and author of Stinker Lets Loose! and Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy WritersBaratunde Thurston, former Onion director of digital, author of How to Be BlackSarah Pappalardo & Beth Newell, co-founders and editors of Reductress, and authors of How to Win at Feminism: The Definitive Guide to Having it All - And Then Some!Scott Dikkers, former Onion editor-in-chief, and author of Trump’s America: Buy This Book And Mexico Will Pay For It, and How to Write FunnyMarnie Shure, managing editor of The OnionMike McAvoy, president and CEO of The Onion

To learn more about The Venture, go to virginatlantic.com/theventure

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