I'm guessing they lost their back issues due to neglect and sometimes tragedy. When people are first starting out they often don't think that in 30 years time they will want a physical copy of their joke periodical and warehouse space is always limited. When budgets get tight it is sometimes the storage bill that has to be cut.
Not to mention how easy it is to lose archives in things like office moves. Put in the wrong pile and shredded to save space on a moving truck or a closet was missed to be marked to moved and left to the next renter/owner to "clean out" and not having any clue if it was a valuable archive closet or not.
I believe The Onion moved (back) to Chicago from NYC in 2012 around the time that print editions were also discontinued.
The Lady magazine was one of the more popular magazines in England for about 150 years and recently went bankrupt. They'd managed to keep a few copies of every single issue in their archives, all the way back to the first one. I was petrified they would get junked, but they have been moved to storage, but who knows how much that's costing from the leftovers of the insolvency? Would love to buy it if I had the cash.
I was excited that I may have been able to help, but I just have issues from volumes 36 and 37... Perhaps this is for the best, as it would have deeply fed my pack rat tendencies.
It won't always show up. There are some magazines that are getting down to a tiny handful of extant copies of some issues.
Even mags where there were hundreds of thousands or millions of copies printed there are issues getting scarce. Trying to find a June 2002 issue of Maximum PC to scan was troublesome. I have one now in the scan queue, but even the cover was a mystery:
It started at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. I was an undergrad there at the time and never missed an issue (but unfortunately didn't save them). A few random observations:
* It was a huge hit on campus almost right away, or at least once it found its footing and sensibility - the dry conventions of journalism applied to mundane events.
* The sensibility of The Onion was very midwestern, and specifically "college-town Midwestern slacker". I knew exactly the type of people they had in mind when writing about "Area Man". This article captures that well: https://www.midstory.org/the-onions-midwestern-homecoming/
* I remember thinking that lots of college towns must have a satirical newspaper as good as this. Then when it went national, realizing that it was really something special.
The coupons at the bottom were a great value. "Most biomass for the buck at Cellar Subs."
I wonder what freshmen who didn't know about it thought about that issue in August of '91 when going to their first lecture "University digs mass grave for incoming freshmen." (The foundations of Grainger Hall were being excavated)
Now you have me wondering how I would have responded to it back in the day. Personally, I avoided the humor sections of campus papers because they felt like more they were by written by teenagers pushing the boundaries (by going for shock value) than anything else.
Yes, I was an undergraduate at the time there then too. Madison had a very active free newspaper culture -- unusually we had two (daily!) free student newspapers with different political leanings and The Onion was a free weekly. (These were all paper newspapers in case youngsters were wondering)
This was a big highlight for me working at Yonge/Dundas at the time. I could go grab a coffee and pick up The Onion from an old school newspaper rack. First time I saw it, I couldn't believe it was free!
On the night the Onion finally went out of print my friends and I went and took a few of the newspaper boxes they distributed them out of in Madison. One stayed at our friend's house, the other one we used as a distribution box for our own anonymous satirical newspaper we wrote for our high school.
Thankfully it was only out of print for less than a year. My wife and I still subscribe, and I have to say it's still a delight to get delivered and have it sitting around the house. Visitors love it!
I wish the title could be changed to something that reflects the actual need: The Onion has gaps in their archive, and are asking for fans to help fill those gaps.
The missing thing is "your" from the original. The title makes it sound like a notice for people looking to get into the onion's business. The actual title is perfectly clear.
I'd be surprised if the anti-clickbait title filtering is a net positive.
Oh wow, your user name is relevant! I still think about the Smoov B character from time to time, his recurring column in earlier issues of The Onion were... memorable.
The writing was great and the comments were so good. There would be hundred of people trying to guess what the next episode of Mad Men was going to be about and people picked up on tiny little period details.
Unfortunately they were removed and I don't believe they were archived anywhere :(
For a while I was under the impression that all the reviews in The A.V. Club were satirical, and I could never figure out what the joke was supposed to be.
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[ 0.31 ms ] story [ 13.7 ms ] threadhttps://theonion.com/cash-room-bitch-be-havin-my-shortie-181...
Sleepless hours and dreamless nights and far aways / Ooo ooo ooo, wishing you were here…
https://theonion.com/it-wuz-always-bout-tha-numbahs-18195843...
I believe The Onion moved (back) to Chicago from NYC in 2012 around the time that print editions were also discontinued.
That's here: https://theonion.com/archivehunt/
Because they are looking for issues in 2012 and 2013 as well.
but it's not like a lost Doctor Who episode, it will show up eventually
meanwhile they can keep eerily predicting dystopia like the government televising executions for entertainment a year before it happens
Even mags where there were hundreds of thousands or millions of copies printed there are issues getting scarce. Trying to find a June 2002 issue of Maximum PC to scan was troublesome. I have one now in the scan queue, but even the cover was a mystery:
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/usa/maximum_pc/page/2/
Anyway, I'm a big fan of what their new(ish) management has been doing, especially with infowars. I hope they can get the issues they're looking for.
* It was a huge hit on campus almost right away, or at least once it found its footing and sensibility - the dry conventions of journalism applied to mundane events.
* The sensibility of The Onion was very midwestern, and specifically "college-town Midwestern slacker". I knew exactly the type of people they had in mind when writing about "Area Man". This article captures that well: https://www.midstory.org/the-onions-midwestern-homecoming/
* I remember thinking that lots of college towns must have a satirical newspaper as good as this. Then when it went national, realizing that it was really something special.
I wonder what freshmen who didn't know about it thought about that issue in August of '91 when going to their first lecture "University digs mass grave for incoming freshmen." (The foundations of Grainger Hall were being excavated)
No better example than Jim Anchower, who was hysterical to Wisconsin locals specifically.
https://theonion.com/tag/jim-anchower/
I'd be surprised if the anti-clickbait title filtering is a net positive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Onion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_A.V._Club
Unfortunately they were removed and I don't believe they were archived anywhere :(
More kvetching: https://www.reddit.com/r/madmen/comments/1q6rn6j/avclub_epis...