Joining The Onion’s Board of Directors… (seriously)

Yes, right up there with my 2nd place finish in the 4th grade science fair and an honorable mention for my Native American diorama in kindergarten, I can now place upon my mantle another great achievement – I am joining the Board of Directors of The Onion, America’s only real, fake source of news.  With headlines like “Jessica Simpson Completes Elaborate Plan To Destroy Cowboys’ Season”, breaking news stories like “Treasury Department Issues Emergency Recall of All US Dollars”, and hard hitting journalistic triumphs such as “International Con Man Barack Obama Leaves U.S. With $85 Million In Campaign Fundraising”, it’s no wonder why The Onion calls itself “America’s Finest News Source”.

But seriously… I will be attending my first board meeting for this esteemed institution later this week and I am pretty excited.  No, NMP hasn’t made an investment in the company.  On occasion, our firm will allow a Partner to join the board of a company with which we have no investment relationship (e.g. Alan Taetle was on the board of ChoicePoint).  We make these exceptions when we believe our affiliation with the company has the potential to strengthen our network, provide valuable insight into an industry of interest, aid in the development of our portfolio, etc.  The Onion, for all of its craziness, is one of the last great independent media brands out there and has done a killer job of building several new digital extensions like The Onion News Network, A.V. Club, and Decider.com.  My hope is that the insight I gain from being a part of their board will aid in our development of better investment theories around digital media and will provide for us a deeper understanding of how high growth digital media brands live and grow.  I’m also hoping to provide a new perspective to the team charged with managing The Onion.  What started out as a small satirical newspaper found only in a handful of college towns has grown into a vast, unrivaled media empire… ok, that’s kind of an exaggeration, but it’s cool nonetheless and I’m honored to be part of it. 

Stay tuned…