Comments on: Dwane Powell resigns!

By: Wiley Miller

Wiley Miller — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:48:22 +0000

“Iâ€™ve often wondered what the top cartoonists in the business were able to pull down for their salaried positions.”

Generally speaking, they’re paid the same as reporters at the paper they work for. Those salaries vary greatly, depending on the size of the newspaper and where its located.

By: David Cohen

David Cohen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:23:02 +0000

I’ve often wondered what the top cartoonists in the business were able to pull down for their salaried positions. All of my cartooning life I’ve wanted to be the editorial cartoonist for a daily paper. Now that I have achieved that precarious position, in a small-to-mid size Gannett paper, I’m mostly grateful for the exposure. The pittance that I receive does little more than pay for the pens and paper that I use; just trying to add one more cartoon a week involves an almost tear-filled meeting with my editor on the terrible straits that the industry is in and how my request could send the whole newsroom into the financial abyss.
Which is not to say that I don’t enjoy doing what I do, or that I’m denying the state of the newspaper industry. I just wish that the thing I’ve been waiting all of my life to do wasn’t tied to a dying dinosaur shuffling out of the way of the oncoming mammalian Media juggernaut.

By: Jim Lavery

Jim Lavery — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:25:20 +0000

“(Are we allowed to use â€œsucksâ€ here?)”

“Yes, â€œsucksâ€ is allowed.”

But we’re not allowed to say What The Duck here.

By: Rick McKee

Rick McKee — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:04:56 +0000

word….

By: Garey Mckee

Garey Mckee — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:47:18 +0000

Listen to my long lost cousin.

By: Rick McKee

Rick McKee — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:45:14 +0000

J.G. Moore asked how much publishers make. I know of a publisher at a paper in Florida not even close to a top ten paper who made over a million a year. As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up.

By: Marc Lutz

Marc Lutz — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:43:35 +0000

I work for a small daily as the business/ag/wine editor/reporter. I started out as a weekly cartoonist (which I still do – though I don’t get paid for it anymore). Then I moved up to being a Web editor, copy editor, lifestyle editor, editorial cartoonist (which I also still do to on occasion), map and graphics maker and eventually the biz guy. As more and more cuts are made, raises of any kind are put on hold, and more work is taken on by those left unscathed by the cutbacks. My preference would be to work solely on comic strips and editorial cartoons, but a paycheck is a paycheck (and not much of one).

By: Milt Priggee

Milt Priggee — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:47:40 +0000

NO- syndication did not kill editorial cartooning.

Syndication is not the cause…. it’s the symptom.

AND….

Dwane is not the loser with his forced resignation.

The loser is the community and the newspaper which put a hole in the bottom of it’s boat to let the water out.

By: Stacy Curtis

Stacy Curtis — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:14:24 +0000

Did syndication kill editorial cartooning?

By: Steve Greenberg

Steve Greenberg — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:58:56 +0000

Salaries of editorial cartoonists who are on staff are all over the board, depending on region, size of newspaper, policies of the chain and many other factors. There are people who make $40-50K, people who make $70K, “stars” who make six figures and people who do cartoons along with other duties on smaller papers who might make under $30K a year.