MySpace adds Onion to website recipe

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - MySpace on Wednesday added The Onion's notoriously mocking news satire to the popular social networking website's youthful recipe.

MySpace jokingly referred to The Onion as "America's Finest News Source" as it announced a partnership to deliver the organization's tongue-in-cheek stories online at http://myspace.com/onionnews.

"The news business is like the tobacco business: you want to reach new readers at as young and impressionable an age as possible," Onion president Sean Mills said. "MySpace was, of course, a natural partner in that regard."

Onion videos, radio broadcasts, written stories and blogs are at its profile page on MySpace, which also features serious fare such as profiles of US presidential candidates and political discussion forums.

The lead Onion news video on MySpace on Wednesday was a story with the headline "Human head found in hamburger" and was a seriously-present bogus tale of an eight-pound head turning up in a meal at a US fast food restaurant.

"The Wall Street Journal is all well and good, but The Onion News Network represents the best in hard-hitting investigative journalism -- at least on MySpace," MySpace general manager Jeff Berman quipped.

"Also, we lost a bet."

The Onion has its own online network at http://www.tv.theonion.com but the partnership allows MySpace users to "stay informed without ever leaving the womb-like confines of MySpace," the News Corporation-owned website said.

The Onion reports that more than four million people view its online edition monthly and that three million print copies of the publication are distributed each month in the United States.

"The reality is that MySpace users are interest in the full continuum of content, from the serious to the silly," Berman told AFP.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.