Onion To Charge For Content By Laugh
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010On the heels of the New York Times announcing its intentions to charge for online news content on a metered system, popular news satire site The Onion announced early today that starting March 1st, it will start to charge by laugh for its online content. Under the new cost structure, The Onion would charge users on a tiered system: $1 for every laugh, $1.25 for every LOL, and $1.75 for every guffaw produced by the site’s online news stories. The move, which stunned thousands of area men and women, was reportedly made to replace declining print and display ad revenues, and according to Onion management, should allow the paper to avoid deep staff cuts. ”Without this new source of revenue,” said Wilfred P. Lightbody, The Onion’s CFO, “we would have to lay off two of our three American Voices, our entire Infographic department, and Teddy from IT. Besides, if Rupert Murdoch can charge for what they pass off as news at FOX, certainly we can charge for laughs.”