The Onion's top news, circa 2013: "Print Dead at 1,803." On Tuesday, it helped put the nail in the coffin.
The satirical news site just agreed to sell a chunk of itself (as well as sister properties including ClickHole and The A.V. Club) to Spanish broadcaster Univision Communications. The reported price tag of about $200 million for a 40 percent stake in the Onion's parent company values the whole enterprise in the range of $500 million.
To put that in perspective, it's twice what Jeff Bezos paid for the Washington Post in 2013. You read that right: The Onion — whose top stories on Tuesday included "NCAA Investigating God For Giving Gifts To Athletes" and "Average Male 4,000% Less Effective In Fights Than They Imagine" — garnered a higher valuation than the Washington Post did. And the storied Financial Times isn't worth all that much more, having agreed to sell itself last year to Japanese publisher Nikkei for $1.3 billion. The Boston Globe? Forget about it. The paper (and affiliated media assets) sold for a mere $70 million back in 2013.