Sucks, I'd have loved to read a print version of the Onion.
When I was at Madison during that time, I applied at one of the 2 student papers to be a sales rep. I went on to be the Sales Manager for the paper. The guy I won out the job over decided to start the Onion with his friend.
You've never heard of me :-(
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When they first started, their sales tactic was that the paper was a small tabloid -ize, with the entire bottom 3 inches or so a double-column coupon book. So you just trimmed off the bottom of the weekly issue & went out to the bars/restaurants with it
Personally, I just think it's an interesting story I bore people with at cocktail parties.
I think people who are inclined to "start the Onion" tend to do so anyway; he may have done it on the side, or in a slightly different manner, but he would have done something similar. I don't think I really had any direct affect on his life's fate or karma
Not surprisingly, they're pretty pervasive (or, I guess were is more correct now) in the DC area, which is somewhat amusing as DC is the target of so much of their humor.