Chicago Reader: The Onion's new design

I find newspaper design fascinating, and The Onion hilarious, so thought I'd share this review.: "There’s a washed-out look to the new front page that says one of two things, either “We’re not as funny as we used to be” or “We are, but you’re going to have to work a little harder to get the joke.”

Rick Martin, the art director who came up with the design that the Onion introduced about two months ago, told me the paper passed the acid test of a serious makeover—some readers canceled their subscriptions. Not many, he admitted, but as a free paper that most of its audience reads online, the Onion has to scrape hard for readers with subscriptions to cancel.

I too thought the Onion had blundered, but my youngest daughter studied Martin’s new design and announced that she got it. Think of the old Onion as a send-up of the Sun-Times, she instructed, and the new Onion as a send-up of the Tribune. “They’ve upped the ante,” she said. The red nose has been removed. “They’ve gone Colbert.”"