Univision Communications has confirmed it bought a controlling stake in The Onion, the not-to-be-taken-seriously “news” site.

Logos of Univision and its new property, The Onion. Image via Twitter
Logos of Univision and its new property, The Onion. Image via Twitter
If not tears, the news generated “no joke” reactions: “This is for real,” said CNN Money.

“The pairing may seem odd: a network that features racy soap operas, sports and news targeted at the nation’s 50 million Hispanics, and the nation’s preeminent satirical site that pokes its finger at everything from politics to pop culture to the minutiae of Americans’ daily lives (recent headline: Corn added to list of items that upset Grandma’s stomach”),” said Straight Talk on Facebook.

said NPR, which first reported the deal involving the parent company of the giant Spanish-language broadcaster, said: “Randy Falco, Univision’s CEO, and Isaac Lee, its president of news and digital, have concluded that humor is a key ingredient to appeal to the millennial palate.

“They hope to build on The Onion’s traffic for their existing digital sites, which are experiencing marked growth but not yet enjoying much in the way of profits.”

Univision started the English-language Fusion network with Disney’s ABC network to reach English-speaking Latinos, a venture that soon pivoted to reach millennials more generally, NPR noted.

Onion CEO Mike McAvoy told staff in a memo obtained by NPR:

“So what does this mean for us as a company? Good things. Univision is excited to help Onion Inc. grow, and to provide the resources to both support our long-standing mission and fund new initiatives. They’ll help us keep the foundation strong and to build great new things on top of it. As an independent media company, we’ve always been forced to run a tight financial ship, which has made us smart and lean, but not always ready to invest in the great new ideas that we come up with.”

Social media reaction was predictable.

that awkward moment when univision buys the onion but you know the onion well enough not to trust any article you see which involved the onion…

Posted by Roy Spencer on Tuesday, January 19, 2016

NPR’s coverage came in for criticism, too:

“The agreement between two seemingly disparate media outfits… ” Dear NPR, as much as you want to be all “inclusive”…

Posted by Hugo Najera on Tuesday, January 19, 2016

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