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43   SCOTT DIKKERS


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Editor in chief, the Onion
AGE 33
E-MAIL editorial@theonion.com
BIO For Dikkers, the Net is a minefield of bad humor. "The jokes people e-mail each other, the corporate sites with crap on them that nobody wants--none of it's actually funny," he says. "We are." So funny, in fact, that when the irreverent Madison, Wis., paper went online with its stolen-from-the headlines headlines and news parodies in 1996, its audience grew tenfold. With grabbers like "32% of U.S. Citizens Still Not Famous" and "Man in Suit Makes Decision Affecting Thousands of Nonsuited Individuals," the Onion quickly endeared itself to an online audience hungry for a real laugh. The paper has existed in print form since 1988. Dikkers himself joined the two-person staff to draw comic strips. "By issue three, I was de facto editor." Today the staff has seven full-time writers, and national advertisers such as Sony and CD-NOW.
1998 POWER PLAY Disney ducked out of a deal to publish the Onion's 20th century "history" book, "Our Dumb Century," this summer and a $450,000 bidding war ensued. The book is due in April 1999 from Crown. Also in the works is the launch of a national edition of the paper.
PLACE YOUR BETS Add www.theonion.com to your reading list. It won't impress your boss or improve your stock portfolio, but it will make you laugh out loud.

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