Case Study: The Onion achieves 50% faster site performance and 100% uptime with CDNetworks

The Onion Maximizes Advertising Inventory by Improving Site Performance of 50% and Eliminating Site Downtime

The Onion, a satirical news publisher founded in 1988, expanded its digital presence from 2006 onward into a site delivering award‑winning news, video and tens of millions of page views each month. Rapid growth strained its infrastructure: frequent, unpredictable downtime and slow provisioning from its primary CDN (up to two days) reduced available ad inventory and hurt revenue.

The Onion made CDNetworks its primary CDN, gaining self‑provisioning, a simpler admin UI and frontline engineering support. The switch produced 100% uptime, a 50% improvement in site performance (average page download ~75 ms), cut provisioning time from two days to two hours, increased ad inventory and enabled planned expansion of video offerings.

The Onion

Michael Greer

VP of Product