The semi-funny paper The Onion is shutting down its print editions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to Gawker, which notes the humor pub will still be available through U.S. Mail.

“The Onion,” Gawker says, “will retain its New York paper for the immediate future, though it is rumored to be doing only “marginally” well. Reportedly healthier are papers in Denver and the midwest, a region that has Onion editions in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul. There are also print editions in Washington, DC and Austin, though it's not clear how those are doing.”

Several reasons for the faux-news publication's need to retrench have surfaced, including that The Onion,

despite its relatively low overhead, is still heir to the market forces

destroying mainstream print media; it has to compete with

similarly-themed Web and TV venues such as The Daily Show, and that the real news itself has become increasingly too wacky to parody.

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