Facing a difficult media environment, the Onion, a satirical news organisation based in Chicago, announced in August that it was entering the subscription household-supplies business. In the glory days of media, writers could simply upload stories to a website and watch as eyeballs and advertising dollars flooded in. These days that is not enough, and the Onion has identified a potentially lucrative new source of revenue: regular deliveries of multipurpose layered cellulose fibres.