“Pickles” is safe. So is “Zits.” And please, no calls about “Prince Valiant.” Our hero survives.
We are making some changes to our daily and Sunday comics and puzzle lineup, which readers will notice beginning today, but all the old standards are safe.
The big weekend change is the loss of the 11 month old The Joplin Globe Weekend Comics & Puzzle Book.
… last year we created a Weekend Comics and Puzzle Book in a tab format with room for advertising.
But times being what they are for newspapers, we have had to scale things back a bit, and so we are returning to the four-page broadsheet comic format we used for many years.
The change in presentation results in less comic strips: Big Nate, Pooch Cafe, and The Argyle Sweater are gone.
Bizarro, Broom-Hilda, and Rhymes With Orange will no longer see print but will be available through the paper’s online site carrying the Comics Kingdom digital service which carries King Features Syndicate and Tribune Content Agency comics. (It appears that Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. papers carry the Comics Kingdom service.)
With newspapers struggling to retain print subscribers the cost of features attracting same is too expensive:
Readers should know that syndicated comics can be expensive, and as we look for ways to run efficiently, cost is something we have to consider. A single comic can cost us thousands of dollars a year, depending on the comic and how often we use it. So even a half-dozen comics fewer over the course of a year saves thousands of dollars.
Read Editor Ostmeyer’s full column here.
Feature image © King Features Syndicate
I didn’t know the Joplin Globe tried to revive the collectible comics comic book size (or close to it) starting last year!