[Newspaper] The Onion moves to the Twin Cities.

The Onion has moved its publishing to the Twin Cities! I am so happy. When they moved to New York in 2001 it became hard to find it here. I was surprised to start seeing it everywhere again and it makes me happy. Always a funny and often a witty read.

In the 12 years I have lived in the Twin Cities, I have found quite a few free publications that are good reads:

Twin Cities Reader (defunct, bought by a large media conglomerate and closed to reduce competition)

City Pages (hasn't been quite the same since being bought from an out of town large media conglomerate, but still decent)

The Pulse (a lot like the Twin Cities Reader, but on a smaller scale, still locally owned, politically active and has a good scope on music)

Citizen Herald (defunct, I haven't found a copy for years, was like the Onion, but locally published)

the Rake (a monthly magazine, very good)

MN Daily (U of MN newspaper, has suffered considerably from budget cuts, in 1993 it was declared one of the best college newspapers in the country, it is a shell of its former self)

Avenues (monthly newspaper of arts, food, etc. for the Twin Cities, I am not sure if it has a website)

Computer User (I do not see it around as much anymore, always a good read and a good place to find deals on hardware in the TC)

The big media newspapers in town such as the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune are almost unreadable anymore since they were each purchased by giant media conglomerates (all of the Twin Cities newspapers were purchased within a year or so of each other in the mid-90s shortly after the deregulation of media ownership by the FCC, Twin Cities' newspapers and publications have suffered considerably. While allowing them to survive, a lot of them have lost their edge because of distant corporate ownership) and now are inoffensive, homogenized, 8th grade reading level pieces of recycling. If I had to choose, I would pick the Star Tribune over the Pioneer Press since it is a bit better read than the PP.