The Onion’s Next Chapter: From Satire to Documentary Film, Inside the Post-InfoWars Strategy

When most people think of The Onion, they picture razor-sharp headlines and absurdist news parodies—not documentary filmmaking. But that’s exactly where CEO Ben Collins is taking the iconic satire brand next. After acquiring The Onion in 2024 and successfully bidding for Alex Jones’s InfoWars, Collins has his sights set on a new frontier: a feature-length documentary timed to America’s 250th anniversary.

The Documentary: ‘Birth of a Nation’ and America’s 250th

Speaking onstage at the Fast Company Most Innovative Companies Summit in conversation with Jill Bernstein, Collins revealed the publication’s next major creative output: a documentary titled Birth of a Nation.

“For the 250th anniversary of America, we’re making a documentary called ‘Birth of a Nation,’ which is great,” Collins said. The project represents a significant strategic pivot for The Onion, signaling that the company is no longer just about viral headlines and printed parody.

The documentary’s title—shared with D.W. Griffith’s notoriously racist 1915 film—is a provocative choice that aligns with The Onion’s legacy of satire. But Collins’s background suggests this won’t be a simple parody film. Before joining The Onion, he spent years at NBC News covering extremism, misinformation, and the far-right ecosystem online.

“I was covering neo-Nazis and psychopaths, a.k.a., like the United States government for NBC News,” Collins said. “It was a tiresome thing to do.”

That frontline experience with conspiracy culture and disinformation will likely inform Birth of a Nation’s approach to America’s origin story—using humor, irony, and on-the-ground reporting to examine the nation’s founding mythology in an election-saturated era.

The Road to Acquisition: From NBC News to Buying The Onion

Collins’s journey to becoming The Onion’s CEO reads like a media thriller. He left NBC News shortly before Christmas in 2023, intending to write a book. Then he saw an AdWeek report that The Onion was for sale.

“We can’t lose this,” Collins recalled thinking at the time. “We’re losing everything. We can’t lose this.”

Within weeks, Collins had assembled a group of investors—including Twilio founder Jeff Lawson—and acquired the publication. The speed of the deal reflected a sense of urgency: Collins saw The Onion as a rare institution worth saving in an era of media consolidation and budget cuts.

“We wanted to make a case to everybody else in the media that if you do actually double down on the stuff that your readers like and you don’t capitulate and try to browbeat and suck up to power left and right . . . it’s better for you,” Collins said.

Turning Around a Broken Business Model

At the time of acquisition, The Onion was generating roughly $1.5 million annually—much of it through low-quality advertising networks. That model, Collins argued, was unsustainable for any independent media company, let alone one with The Onion’s cultural weight.

“Low-quality ad revenue is a race to the bottom,” Collins explained. “You get trapped in a cycle of chasing clicks that don’t pay enough.”

The new team immediately shifted focus away from programmatic ads and toward three core revenue streams:

• Subscriptions: The Onion now has approximately 80,000 paying subscribers
• Print products: A return to physical formats that offer higher margins and deeper reader engagement
• Audience support: Direct financial backing from loyal fans

The results speak for themselves. In addition to those paid subscribers, The Onion boasts more than 3 million YouTube subscribers and a digital audience of roughly 30 million people.

“We’re proving that if you give readers something they actually value, they’ll pay for it,” Collins said. “And if you stop chasing the algorithm and start chasing quality, the audience will follow.”

The InfoWars Bid: A Satire Playbook for Bankruptcy Court

Maybe no single move has cemented The Onion’s new direction quite like the InfoWars acquisition bid—a story that combines absurdity, legal strategy, and political significance.

When InfoWars entered bankruptcy proceedings nine days after the 2024 election—triggered by the defamation judgments against Alex Jones related to the Sandy Hook tragedy—there were only two bidders.

“So when it was up for bankruptcy nine days after the 2024 election, the two people to bid on it were Alex Jones’s proxy, probably his kid, and us,” Collins said.

The Onion won the auction. But the process hasn’t been clean: Jones has continued appealing, keeping the legal battle alive.

“We are stupid people who picked a fight with someone who has spent 20 years testing the limits of American institutions,” Collins said with a mix of self-deprecation and determination.

The InfoWars bid isn’t just a stunt—it’s a deliberate strategy. By acquiring the platform, The Onion can:

1. Remove a source of disinformation from the public sphere
2. Control the narrative around Jones’s brand going forward
3. Create content that uses InfoWars’s own infrastructure against its former mission
4. Send a message that satire can be a form of accountability journalism

“We think there’s a way to use satire not just to make people laugh, but to actually disrupt dangerous power structures,” Collins said. “That’s the playbook we’re writing in real time.”

What’s Next for The Onion: Beyond Satire Headlines

The Birth of a Nation documentary and the InfoWars acquisition are just two pillars of a broader strategy. Collins envisions The Onion becoming a multiplatform media company that produces:

• Documentary films that tackle serious subjects through a comedic lens
• Long-form journalism that mixes investigative reporting with parody
• Live events that bring the brand’s sensibility to physical spaces
• Educational content that trains people to recognize misinformation

“We’re not just a website that makes jokes anymore,” Collins said. “We’re a media company that uses humor as a weapon against bullshit.”

The documentary project is particularly ambitious. Birth of a Nation will likely examine how America’s founding ideals have been mythologized, distorted, and weaponized over two and a half centuries—all while staying true to The Onion’s irreverent voice.

The Media Industry Takeaway: Quality Over Algorithms

Collins’s message to the broader media landscape is clear: stop chasing low-quality ad revenue and start building direct relationships with audiences.

“Every publisher is facing the same crisis,” he argued. “You can either race to the bottom with crappy ads and clickbait, or you can say ‘no’ and build something that people actually want to support.”

The numbers back him up. Moving from $1.5 million in low-quality ad revenue to 80,000 paying subscribers and 30 million monthly visitors shows that The Onion’s model is working—even if the revenue per user is still modest by big-tech standards.

“We’re not trying to be the next Google,” Collins said. “We’re trying to be the next The Onion—which, honestly, is pretty ambitious on its own.”

A Personal Mission: From Extremism Coverage to Satirical Empire

For Collins, the transition from NBC News’s extremism beat to leading The Onion feels less like a career change and more like a strategic evolution.

“Covering neo-Nazis and government psychopaths for years, you start to realize that satire is one of the most effective tools for exposing them,” he said. “These people have no defense against being laughed at.”

Birth of a Nation will test that theory on a national stage. And the InfoWars acquisition will test whether satire can actually dismantle a toxic media empire.

“We’re learning as we go,” Collins admitted. “But that’s been The Onion’s entire history—figuring out how to do something nobody’s done before, and somehow making it funny.”

Key Takeaways for B2B Founders and GTM Teams

While The Onion is a consumer media brand, Collins’s playbook offers universal lessons for any business operating in today’s attention economy:

1. Stop chasing low-quality revenue. Programmatic ads and display networks are the digital equivalent of payday loans—quick money that destroys long-term value.

2. Build a subscription model. Direct audience relationships create predictable revenue and deeper loyalty. Even B2B companies can benefit from memberships or premium content tiers.

3. Use content as a strategic weapon. The Onion isn’t just making jokes—it’s using satire to challenge power structures. Every business should think about how its content can serve a higher purpose than generating clicks.

4. Move fast when opportunity strikes. Collins went from wanting to write a book to purchasing a media institution in weeks. Speed of decision-making is a competitive advantage.

5. Don’t be afraid to pick a fight. The InfoWars bid shows that calculated risk-taking can define a brand’s identity and attract loyal supporters.

The Bottom Line

The Onion under Ben Collins is proving that satire isn’t just entertainment—it’s a business model, a legal weapon, and a cultural force. The Birth of a Nation documentary and the InfoWars acquisition are early chapters in a story that will continue unfolding through America’s semiquincentennial and beyond.

“We’re building something that matters,” Collins said. “And we’re doing it by remembering that laughter is still the best way to deal with a terrible situation.”

For anyone in media, marketing, or growth—watch what The Onion does next. They’re not just making headlines. They’re rewriting the playbook.