–submitted by Joy Cardin
We had a very funny Rotary Club of Madison program on Wednesday with Scott Dikkers talking about his forthcoming book – The Onion Story: How a Band of Misfits, Dropouts and Sad Sacks Built the World’s Most Trusted News Source.
Scott recalled how he came to Madison from little Ellsworth, Wisconsin hoping to break into “show business” – not realizing how unlikely that would be at the time. He first found some success when the Daily Cardinal student newspaper started running his Jim’s Journal comic strip, which eventually turned to a t-shirt design, and then a New York Times best selling book!
The two founders of The Onion (named that because the two ate onion sandwiches) asked Scott to draw cartoons for this publication they were planning. He soon volunteered to help edit the stories – and before too long he became the co-owner of the paper and its editor in chief.
Scott guessed that the Rotarians in the audience know how important it is to search “high and low” for great talent. But he said he only searched low looking for the world’s best satire writers! He found them in the form of disgruntled liquor store workers, dishwashers and grocery store clerks. For whatever reason, the Badger Liquor Store was a big source of writers. One applied with a story headlined: Area Loser Wants Job. The writers were not micromanaged. They were left alone. They didn’t have to work business hours. No one was fired. The ones who weren’t that funny just stopped coming to the editorial meetings. And it worked!
The Onion Story will be published in October.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Onion-Story/Scott-Dikkers/9781637747513
If you missed the program, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/7QKJgNYuH-0
Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin 