Recently, on NPR’s radio show, This American Life , I learned about the creative editing process at The Onion, the uber-popular weekly satirical newspaper. Every Monday, each person on the Onion team comes in with lots and lots and lots of story ideas. The headlines are read aloud by their creators. If at least 2 people agree the ideas should be published, the story survives until the next day.
If the story is not up to snuff, it is DOA.
Amazingly, the team can hear 600 story ideas to come up with 20 story ideas that will make it into the final newspaper.
That means there’s a 97% failure rate at the Onion.
That statistic is extremely comforting. It makes failure just a statistical necessity on the road to an ultimate goal. At the Onion, the goal is story ideas that will make people grab the paper, read it, and give a little chuckle at headlines like …
2 responses so far ↓
1 Dock Drumming // Jun 3, 2008 at 4:45 am
I heard this TAL. I thought it was pretty interesting too, even though I rarely read The Onion.
2 Stephanie // Jun 5, 2008 at 8:27 pm
i love the failure rate, if that’s what it takes for me to laugh each and every time i pick up that free pub. then i’m for it! i love ny and those little onion stands.
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