Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, first became a reader of the satirical publication he now helps run when he was an Emerson College student in Boston in the late 2000s. Looking back today, Collins spoke candidly on the need for parody publications from the stage of this year’s Boston Globe Summit, where his sense of humor and willingness to dive into uncomfortable conversations remained undiminished by the spotlight of a “Fireside Chat.”
In his discussion with Boston Globe Washington Bureau Chief Jackie Kucinich, whom he previously worked alongside at The Daily Beast, Collins expressed his ire for artificial intelligence and disillusionment with modern mainstream media while reiterating the power of satire as a truth-telling tool in today’s times.
“We [at the Onion] can say the unsaid things in American life in a way that a lot of newspapers cannot say right now,” Collins told the crowd during the discussion.
While he concurs with the public’s general idea that The Onion is considered “fake news,” Collins made the distinction between what is considered fake and what is truly disinformation. He said that the stories published in their paper are meant to convey an editorial perception of truth run through satirical headlines and stories.
“It’s important to make it so there is artistic expression of fake ideas, versus trying to deliberately libel and slander people,” he said in an interview with The Beacon following the panel.
Collins, who was named CEO of The Onion in 2024, said he became interested in purchasing The Onion after seeing it for sale in an article in Adweek that January. At that time, he posted on Bluesky saying, “Who wants to buy The Onion? I have 600 dollars,” and after another previous journalist and co-worker, Leila Brillson, reached out, they acquired money, primarily from Jeff Lawson, co-founder of the messaging app Twilio. By April, The Onion was theirs, and Collins sat atop it, ready to bring his direction to the publication that was on the decline due to layoffs, shuffling between different corporate owners, and the shifting of the comedic landscape.
A value that was very important to him was bringing back the print edition of the paper, which removed excessive advertisements and paywalls. Now, the print edition is the primary revenue source for the paper, with more than 53,000 monthly subscribers. Under his leadership, The Onion has become between the tenth and eleventh most circulated print newspaper in the United States, with projections by Collins to reach the top 10 next year.
In trying to establish a reputation for being a stronger and more robust voice in satirical journalism amid conversations about the future of AI in newsrooms, Collins has implemented a hard no AI policy, bluntly stating that it “is just not funny.”
“AI is like trying to find the most middle paddle joke you could possibly do,” he added.
During his time at Emerson, Collins wrote as a living arts music columnist for The Beacon and interned at The Boston Globe before going on to work for publications and news stations, including Esquire and NBC. There, he covered issues that he felt were underreported on, such as the dark side of the web and dishonest information spread through the internet.
Collins told The Beacon how powerful satire can be on college campuses if done correctly. Even The Onion, though before Collins’ time, originated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he said it was created as the satirical counterpart of their campus bulletin, The Union.
“It’s a big part of college life if you do it correctly, and you can say stuff that the administration doesn’t like without getting targeted,” he said of students trying to break into journalism and speak parody to power. “You guys are getting targeted for the same exact reasons; people are afraid to encounter mockery in any real way.”
Toward the end of the panel, Kucinich asked Collins about Emerson College and his advice to current students, which he had previously alluded to throughout the discussion.
Collins took the opportunity to speak out against his alma mater, criticizing the college administration’s approach to handling student protests.
“If they try to beat you with sticks for protesting Palestine in an alley, just fucking fight back next time,” he said as his first piece of advice.
He specifically referenced the arrest of 118 pro-Palestine protesters at the Emerson “Popular University Encampment” in April of 2024, describing the encampment raid as targeting “a bunch of 90-pound, purple-haired kids in an alley in tents.”
He also called for better communication and de-escalation between administrators and students over protesting.
“You can fucking talk to them, it’s fine,” he said, directly addressing the administration.
Collins’ comments come at a time of renewed tension surrounding student protest and disciplinary response, with four Emerson students facing criminal charges after taking part in a pro-Palestine protest on Oct. 7.
Outside of his comments about Emerson, Collins said satire had to relay some amount of truth. Through the medium of jokes and irony, he said, The Onion captures both the political climate of the country and the true feelings of fearful citizens.
He explained that The Onion has greater freedom of speech than mainstream news under “jester’s privilege,” a historical concept dating back to the courts of medieval Europe that set the stage for protections of comedic speech that endure today.
“As Hannah Arendt, the foremost authoritarian scholar on this [said], there’s nothing fascists hate more than mockery,” Collins said in an interview with The Beacon. “[Satire is] usually the last line of defense in terms of how to accurately report on what people are feeling in a country.”
He pointed to how satire is usually a remedy for speech suppression in countries with stricter rules over the press and traditional hard journalism.
“Other countries that go through what we’re going through right now have, for centuries, leaned on satire in ways to tell the truth,” he said.
Collins said that the spirit of his satire is “to say the thing that’s rattling around in the back of your head without having to directly cite every source.”
He also turned his attention to concerns of American press freedoms, touching on the difficulty of speaking outwardly against the current administration.
“In the weeks running up to the inauguration, I talked to my staff, and I said, ‘Look, if The Onion is anything, it’s against the man,’” he said to the crowd. “It’s like an old-fashioned anti-imperalist rag, in my opinion.”
During his comments about Emerson onstage, Collins went on to express support for the student body, specifically reporters, and provided words of encouragement to protesters who may face backlash from the school’s administration.
“If you get kicked out of school for doing stuff like that, you’ll have a much better career, and I’m much more likely to hire you,” he said. “Keep it up, keep fighting…I’m very proud of the students of my alma mater.”
