Eat The Press

Behold, The Onion News Network: "You'll Never Read Again"

Rachel Sklar |  Posted Friday March 23, 2007 at 03:24 PM

Today the WSJ reports on the soon-to-be-launching Onion News Network, which in the promo to the left promises "April 2007" but the WSJ reports is launching on Tuesday. ONN will "parody the visual style and breathless reporting of 24-hour cable news networks like CNN" but in truth, judging by the promo, actually looks slicker and edgier, with less screaming graphics. The WSJ breaks it down:

Initially, ONN will offer two short video segments per week, a number that will grow, according to Sean Mills, president of Onion Inc. The videos, available at tv.theonion.com and as free podcasts on iTunes, will include fake breaking-news segments, fake investigative pieces, fake public service announcements and feeds from a C-SPAN parody called "O-SPAN."

O-SPAN sounds sort of awesome, we will admit.

Smartly, the Onion is leaping into the giant Sunday-show breach, which are ripe for parody; the WSJ reports that there will be rountable-style segments (with topics like "Should America build a moat?" which is funny until you remember that whole border fence thing). Other than HBO's planned "The Gaggle" the hipped up Sunday morning-style show format has been woefully underutilized.

Will people watch though? Probably; it's the Onion, and they have been doing it right for years. Still, we're witnessing an explosion of news-based comedic content to the web right now, with an emphasis on video: Comedy Central is getting its act together online (finally!), plus there's AOL/HBO's This Just In, Turner Broadcasting's Superdeluxe, plus IAC's planned comedy site, to launch, er, soon (Disclosure: It's HuffPo-partnered.) Never mind College Humor, the National Lampoon sites and other sites currently in development as well (HBO's Take Two featuring UCB's Jessica St. Clair ("The Showbiz Show," For Your Consideration) springs to mind). They may be right — you may never read again. With all that online video to watch, who will have time?