Comments on: Rob Tornoe laid off from Politicker.com

By: Rob Tornoe

Rob Tornoe — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:35:26 +0000

Thanks for all the kind words. Luckily, I made a ton of contacts working on a national project like this, plus I kept a lot of my previous contacts, and I’ll probably be freelancing for the remaining Politicker sites, so I’m really fortunate for that.

In a weird way, it’ll be nice not to have to draw 800,000 cartoons a week!

And I’ll still be blogging for the time being at my personal blog http://tornoe.blogspot.com, so update your bookmarks. I actually might have some suitors for my cartoon blog, so I’ll keep you updated.

If anyone wants to reach me, drop me a line at robtornoe@gmail.com.

By: Daniel Ted Feliciano

Daniel Ted Feliciano — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:46:57 +0000

That’s pretty disappointing to hear. Rob’s blog on Politicker is the one I always read.

By: Mike Peterson

Mike Peterson — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:17:05 +0000

Different category than the papers.

Not that I’m not sympathetic, but the Maine politicker page was a dubious stopoff before the elections and has little appeal now. They weren’t aggregating anything you didn’t come across anyway and — with the very notable exception of Rob’s cartoons — their own material was extremely weak, like cellphone videos of speeches at area conventions, shot from the back of the room.

This may have been different in other locales, but I was directed to the site by a Congressional aide who said, “You want to see something really lame?”

Not exactly the way to go viral.

Rob would have done better to put up his own site and let them link to him. And perhaps that’s what he should do now. I’m beginning to join the camp that says you shouldn’t rely on someone else to surround your work with quality content. Certainly, in my freelance days which well-preceded the Internet, I was known to take jobs from places I didn’t think could succeed on the theory that the checks would clear until the day they didn’t. This would be one of those jobs.

By: Steve Greenberg

Steve Greenberg — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:03:08 +0000

Jeez… Rob, I’m so sorry to see you join this club. You were doing great work, and giving us some real hope that online editorial cartooning might be a viable path to salvage this profession. This is depressing.
Good luck and best wishes… all I can offer from my own experience is that perseverance, and being flexible and adaptable, count for a lot.

By: Jeff Vella

Jeff Vella — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 03:46:08 +0000

Wow, these “Layoffs” are spreading like an epidemic.

By: Paul Fell

Paul Fell — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:52:12 +0000

Boyoboy… the hits just keep coming. Bleagh!

By: Charles Brubaker

Charles Brubaker — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:21:35 +0000

Wow, that was short.

Hope he’ll find a way to make ends meet.

By: Aaron Taylor

Aaron Taylor — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:11:19 +0000

What? Seems like I was seeing Rob’s name all over the place this past year.
It won’t take long for politicker to figure out they’ll be missing out big time. Rob does great work.

By: Beth Cravens

Beth Cravens — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:09:32 +0000

Drats! I hope he bounces back with a vengeance.