Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial cartoonist Dave Horsey leveled his ink and blog at the new Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell calling him “the most vulgar embodiment of a pervasive bean counter mentality that is threatening the best of American journalism.” From his column on his blog Dave warned that under a Zell leadership the Tribune Co. […]
This blog deals primarily with newspaper based cartooning and as such major and minor shifts in the industry can have an impact on most of my readers. I subscribe to various newspaper and media related RSS feeds to keep track of the rumblings in the industry. Here are some of the recent changes that have […]
Sun-Times Media Group announced that it is considering laying off as many as 35 of their newsroom staffers within the next month. I contacted Jack Higgins, the paper’s editorial cartoonist, who told me that he has been assured that his position is safe. He also noted that he does almost exclusively local cartoons.
Dave Astor reports that former Tribune Co. boss Dennis FitzSimons is receiving a buyout package of approximately $41 million. When contacted by E&P, AAEC President Nick Anderson for a response, Nick and others of the AAEC board drafted up a top 10 list of fund-raising ideas to make sure FitzSimmons receives his fair portion.The list […]
The monthly Sacramento Humor Times (formerly the Comic Press News), which prints comics, and editorial cartoons, will no longer be a free publication after this month. The magazine claims a circulation of 40,000 has been losing advertising revenue and is forced to move to a paid-subscription beginning in January. The national version will cost $17.95 […]
San Diego Union-Tribune has offered buyouts to about six percent of their work force and threatened layoffs if not enough bail ship voluntarily. Luckily for editorial cartoonist Steve Breen, his position is not on the chopping block. In an email to me he states: They told me that I am on the list of people […]
The Modesto Bee has shrunk their Sunday comic pages. The paper used to run 29 features over six pages, but has reduced the comic section to 29 features on four pages. The editor cites cost cutting as the primary reason. He offers that a third party company that prints the comics has a new process […]
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has announced plans to buyout 55-60 employees as part of a cost reduction effort due to sagging ad revenue. The employee buyouts are voluntary. Stuart Carlson, who has been the paper’s editorial cartoonist for 24 years, reports that 22 employees have taken the paper up on its buyout option, but he […]
Five of the nations largest newspaper companies are in talks to create their own advertising network in hopes of recapturing ad revenue that hasn’t been made the leap from their print products to their web offerings. The consortium will create a common ad sales force to help compete against ad networks set up by Yahoo […]
The American Thinker blog takes a look at the recent Chapter 11 filing of Movie Gallery, the largest retail DVD rental operator, who’s business has been swept away by the internet and digital cable. Movie Gallery’s mistake was investing $1 Billion dollars into Hollywood video two years ago and never seeing the revenue come in […]
Two Chicago area newspapers will be merged together in an attempt to restore profitability. The Daily Southtown will be merged this November with it’s twice-weekly sister paper. It has also brokered a deal to have rival paper Chicago Tribune take over most of the deliveries of the Sun-Times to save another $5 million.The new paper […]
I don’t know if Scott Adams frequents The Daily Cartoonist and saw our discussion last week on newspaper trends, but he’s waded into the discussion by posting his prediction on the future of newspapers. In short it will happen within your next 2 mobile phone upgrades. I predict that the end of printed newspapers will […]
With the last week of the Funky Winkerbean story-line of the dying Lisa Moore character, newspapers and readers are talking about the impact and appropriateness of the topic. It’s a subject that is still being debated on several threads on this blog. As a recap, here are what some of the paper’s are writing on […]
While we all sit around trying to think of what the newspaper based cartooning industry is going to look like in the next 5-10 years, I’ve found three stories that I believe indicate factors and trends that will have a big impact on print cartooning.Firstly Gannett newspapers are looking to reduce their paper size from […]
In a surprise announcement, Chicago Tribune Co. has announced that it will buy back stock from shareholders and return to a privately held company. The deal is being engineered by Chicago real estate billionaire tycoon Sam Zell who will be invest another $250 million and become a member of the board. It is not clear […]