The Onion's big plans for InfoWars
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Friends, hello. My name is Mike Rugnetta. I'm the host of a podcast called Never Post, which is about the internet. Or really, it's about the world and why the world is the way that it is because of the internet. We ask big questions like, why do disgraced politicians join Cameo? Why is it scary and satisfying to block someone? Would you ever create an AI voice clone of a deceased loved one in a show that you don't need to be terminally online to enjoy? But it doesn't hurt. Neverpost is at neverpo.st and wherever you find podcasts.
The only good thing about Trumpism is that, like, it's not a debate. Like, this is what happened. Like, he intentionally destroyed pretty much everything that we had. We get to rebuild it now because we're ahead of the game. We're the only people who know it's all gone. Like, we're the only people who understand we're on the rubble and we can build from there.
Today, we are taking a look behind the curtain of one of America's most important institutions, an institution that may be trying to save our democracy from evil dictators and fascists. I'm talking, of course, about The Onion. And today we sit down with Onion CEO Ben Collins to talk all about their purchase of InfoWars and what they plan to do next with it. So we typically do like a whole song and dance setting up for one of these interviews, but we don't know what we're about to talk about. So first, I just want to say welcome. So excited you're here. And we are dying to know what we're talking about.
Oh, sure. Of course. InfoWars launches on July 2nd. the brand new InfoWars that we all know and love. And it's going to be a whole new kind of thing. And it's taking a lot of what you guys have talked about over the last year and implementing it into like a business strategy. So if I fuck this up, I'm absolutely blaming you guys.
Okay, cool.
All right, welcome to Panic World, a show about how the internet works our minds, our culture, and eventually reality. You are currently the CEO of The Onion, which is... Does that still feel insane to say?
Yeah, it does. Because, Ryan, you've known me for 10 years. I don't think anybody would pick me for a CEO of fucking anything. This is a completely weird thing, but... As you know, because you're kind of the CEO of your own thing at this point, but you wouldn't call yourself that in public.
Legally, I am. There you go. CEOs are a different – we have different responsibilities. We have different – we're kind of better, I think, because there's more on our shoulders.
Oh, my God. It's we're so much more important than everyone else.
You get it. You get it. Yeah.
Yeah. You should read my LinkedIn post about this. It's just like it really is. We just we just carry more, you know, emotional labor.
I wish people got, you know, what it was like and how how society is sort of stacked against this. But OK, so you take over from the you take over the onion. And one thing that I've been watching very closely is your business model. So pre-InfoWars, we'll build up to that. So talk to me about what it was like taking over The Onion and sort of rethinking how The Onion makes money in the 2020s. Because it has to be quite different, I imagine, than how it was making money before.
Oh, hell yeah, man. So when we took it over, it was making like... Well under $2 million a year on exclusively, almost exclusively, Chumbox advertising. So Chumbox advertising is this stuff at the bottom of the screen that is like, you know, it's like put an onion in your sock and it'll cure your diabetes or something. All that bullshit that has existed for 20 years now on the internet that you hate, you only click on it by accident. That was the whole thing. business model. So when we took it over that we just turned it off and we decided within three months we would become subscription forward. We would still do ads, but they would be more bespoke and they would work with people. And we started a copy agency as well.
But mostly it's a subscription forward thing with the newspaper. We have 80,000 subscribers.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–4:20
2
What are The Onion's plans for InfoWars?
4:20–11:39
3
How has The Onion's business model evolved?
11:39–19:20
4
What is the impact of Google Zero on The Onion?
19:20–26:50
5
How does The Onion maintain its editorial process?
26:50–33:42
6
What are the challenges of producing video content?
33:42–38:40
7
How does The Onion plan to engage with its audience?
38:40–54:18