Saving ‘The Onion’: An extremely brief oral history

In early 2024, Ben Collins was contemplating the future of the media business—and his place in it. He was in the process of resigning after spending six years as a senior reporter at NBC News, exhausted by the disinformation beat that took him to some of the darkest and most disturbing corners of the internet. It hadn’t helped that in December 2022 NBC News had suspended Collins from the Elon Musk beat following his highly critical coverage of the gazillionaire’s acquisition of Twitter.

The media landscape looked bleak. Layoffs were decimating storied media titles like Sports Illustrated, and Collins was hearing rumors that G/O Media, the holding company owned by private equity firm Great Hill Partners, was looking to shed 36-year-old satirical news publication The Onion from its portfolio. (G/O had dumped Jezebel and was about to purge other titles, including Deadspin and The A.V. Club.)

As a joke, Collins posted a message on Bluesky: “So uh how do we buy The Onion?” Two media friends (Leila Brillson and Danielle Strle) jumped on board, and they quickly joined forces with another Onion lover, Twilio cofounder and former CEO Jeff Lawson, who also just so happens to be a billionaire. By late April 2024, the team had closed the deal. Here’s how it felt from the inside.

Ben Collins, CEO

There was this article saying that The Onion is aggressively for sale. I knew that Elon Musk had been dreaming for a long time of owning it. And I was like, “If The Onion is in his hands, just give up on American society.” He’s the most humorless person on earth. So I [posted on Bluesky], “Who wants to buy The Onion? I think I have $600.” I had no idea how to buy a company. I’m not a guy who buys stuff. All my shirts are from the dollar store. It’s a huge problem. But Leila Brillson was sitting at home. She had just had a baby three weeks before. She was the first female executive editor for Playboy and then went to work at Netflix and Disney and TikTok.

Leila Brillson, chief marketing officer

I think the reason Ben picked up my call is that I had just moved back to Chicago, which is where I’m from. The Onion is based in Chicago. My thought process was, “Huh, it’s for sale. It can’t be that much.” Followed by, “I bet they have an incredible social footprint.” Followed by, “They’re in Chicago. Hey, I’m in Chicago.” I think he thought I was much more connected than I am. The best thing I brought to the table was that I was the only one who lived in Chicago. Also, my sister is an M&A lawyer. [Paula Brillson is now general counsel at The Onion.]

Danielle Strle, chief product officer

I had a lot of freedom after Tumblr [where Strle went from employee No. 8 to director of product] to just work on fun projects. I had helped a friend run a cheese shop—I was the chief technology officer of New York’s best cheese shop. When Ben called, I was immediately interested.

I remember seeing The Onion on newsstands in New York right after 9/11, and I was like, “Wow, The Onion is here. We’re going to bounce back.” My first call was to Scott Kidder [now acting as The Onion’s CFO]. He’s a true wizard on the spreadsheets. If you’re going to try and buy something, you’re going to need a powerful set of spreadsheets.

Jeff Lawson, Owner

Jeff Bezos bought The [Washington] Post, and Marc Benioff bought Time. The universe would just be right if I bought The Onion. This sort of started like a joke but then, as we looked into it more, it was like, it’s hit some hard times under the last owner and needs some revitalization. So it wasn’t just a matter of, I could buy The Onion, [but] hey, we could save The Onion. There was a real opportunity here to take this modern American institution and help it thrive in a new media environment. An environment where we need satire more than ever.

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