News Corp Australia, which publishes about 100 newspapers there, has decided to no longer carry comic strips and panels in its papers as of September 11, 2022. Editorial cartoons will remain.
The News Corp Australia statement:
Our editorial cartoonists remain as loved and valued as ever and continue to play a critical role in both our print editions and increasingly in our digital growth strategy. The decision to end comic strips reflects the changing readership habits of our audiences and this is why we are increasing our focus as a business on puzzles, games, and crosswords which is highlighted by our recent launch of Brain Gains. It also reflects a world-wide trend where the audience for comic strips has moved to movies and events rather than newspapers.
Cathy Wilcox, president of the Australian Cartoonists Association, was sharing the news and released a statement on behalf of the ACA.
We are disappointed to hear of the decision by News Corp to cease running comic strips in all of its Australian publications…
© Gary Clark
In response to a question about which News Corp cartoonists are impacted Cathy listed Jason Chatfield (Ginger Meggs), Gary Clark (Swamp), Tony Lopes (Insanity Streak), and Allan Salisbury (Snake Tales).
Cathy adds:
Among some locals, News Corp has been their sole employer.
© Tony Lopes
This also affects cartoonists in America as a number of them are syndicated to News Corp papers in Australia. Among the strips mentioned in the Twitters threads above are Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Hagar the Horrible, The Phantom, Garfield, Peanuts, and Blondie.
News Corp’s U.S. newspaper, The New York Post, quit comics eight years ago.
Gary Clark draws (the internationally-renowned) Swamp. There is nobody called “John Clark” working as a cartoonist to the best of my knowledge.
Corrected – and apologies to Gary Clark.
Same with the NY Post, a News Corp newspaper.. Dropped the comics page years ago. They had just a handful and it wasn’t even a whole page, but I only bought the paper for the comics. Have not picked it up in years since they did that.
So, stupert rupert wants to take humour out of our day! Well, that’s it for me. I only buy the Telegraph for the comics and crosswords. There are plenty of other sources. Newscorp have lost me and so many others forever.
one of the days bright spots gone. sacrilege.
after reading all the bad news you need something to put a smile back on your face.
If the News Corp owned New York Post dropped the comics page in 2014, why didn’t the New York Daily News pick up any of the dropped comics for its 2 page daily comics pages?
The comics (plus the puzzles) are the main reason I buy the paper – a bit of light relief from all the doom and gloom in the news. So – the papers are going to keep the editorial cartoons, which – let’s face it – contain very little humour and are often just an excuse for a political rant, which we get in the rest of the newspaper anyway. I for one will be seriously considering terminating my subscription.
It’s a sad day for the daily comic strip. There are no more Aussie daily strips. Those were it. An entire industry vanished overnight.
As Watterson said, “A comic strip only takes a second to read, but over the years it creates a surprisingly deep connection with readers. Seeing a strip every day is a fun ritual, and they feel connected to it. Even in a few panels you can develop characters and express an outlook on life as the months go by, and before you know it, readers are seriously invested in the world you’ve created.
That incremental aspect, that unpretentious daily-ness of comics is a surprising source of power.
Readers do form an emotional bond with your strip.”
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The elephant in the room isn’t ‘why are they dropping the comics from the print newspaper’ — I understand readership in print has been dwindling for a long time, it’s that the comics weren’t invited online to the newspapers’ websites or apps. The horoscopes, puzzles, gossip columns; everything else got to follow the readers online to the apps, but the comics were left back in the print realm to calcify.
We constantly asked the newspapers to add comics to their apps and websites, but they just didn’t think they were as important as the moon being in Saturn or the latest fad puzzle.
Full story here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChmjdVEgI0S/
Unfortunately the news in the papers can be distressing and then I go to the comics and they always make me smile and EVEN laugh. What a shame you want to take this from us. Does anybody Ask if that’s what myself and my friends enjoy, but NO ,it’s not about the people anymore.