MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin isn't losing its Onion to the Big Apple -- but New York will get the extra flavor of a few Midwestern jokes.
The Madison-based satirical weekly newspaper The Onion, known for its wild parodies that mix truth and fiction, is relocating a crew of 10 writers and sales staff to a new Manhattan branch office.
Onion publisher and president Peter Haise said Madison won't lose the paper that put it on the humor map.
Some faithful readers said they're concerned the move could peel away the paper's unique sense of humor.
Among past headlines was: "Kennedy Slain by CIA, Mafia, Castro, LBJ, Teamsters, Freemasons: President Shot 129 Times from 43 Different Angles."
A more recent example: "Gore Calls for Recount of Supreme Court Vote."
Milwaukee Area Technical College student Maria Kruger, 20, said the paper won't be as funny if the writers are focused on a larger audience.
"No one will realize it's from Wisconsin," Kruger said.
But Onion staff writer John Krewson, who will make the move, said he won't trade in his Midwest humor for "New York turnstile-jumping and subway-tagging jokes." He said most of the writers are Midwesterners, and that sensibility will still fuel the jokes.
The Onion plans to open its New York office within the next few months, printing 60,000 to 70,000 copies of its first issue in July, Haise said. He said the paper also hopes to open a San Francisco office in the next year.
The publication is distributed in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and Denver -- 180,000 copies a week. But the Onion Web site consistently draws at least 1 million visitors weekly, Onion officials said. The Onion book "Our Dumb Century," hit the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list last year.
To Onion officials, the Big Apple was too big an opportunity to pass up.
"It's the land of opportunity, and apparently, the streets are paved with gold," Krewson said. "You can charge a lot for a paper in a place where the city is paved with gold."
