Filed under: Newspaper industry

After the LA Times ran a story quoting comic strip heavy weights Berkeley Breathed, Wiley Miller questioning the future of the American Comics page, the discussion has been spreadign to other publications.Today on CNN.com, they have a story called “Who reads the comics anymore?”…  On the one hand they want younger readers which would require hip-per, edgier features like “Pearls Before Swine” and “Get Fuzzy,” but such features are lost on the older generation that is the bread and butter of the newspaper subscriptions.From Tom Daning, managing editor for United Media:”They’re looking for something new and edgy, but many of their readers are over 35,” he says.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060430/OPINION03/604300301/1271Also leaving the Web team is Larry Wright , an extraordinarily talented cartoonist and our long-suffering softball coach.  Larry learned the hard way that journalists write because they can’t play.

There is a great article over at the LA Times about an upcoming “Sunday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books” symposium that will examine the future of comics in the newspaper…. Other cartoonists on the panel include Cathy Guisewite (“Cathy”), Jerry Scott (“Baby Blues” and “Zits”) and Lalo Alcaraz (“La Cucaracha”).Berkeley:”I don’t think you’ll ever see another ‘Calvin & Hobbes,’ ‘Bloom County’ or ‘Doonesbury’ again,” says Breathed, 48, who received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987.

Another newspaper has announced that it will be reducing its newsroom staff. The Denver Post is home to editorial cartoonist Mike Keefe. The Post will offer early retirement and voluntary separation packages as an incentive. They’re looking to reduce 25 of their 300 staff members.

Recently I posted a story how the Sacramento Bee was cutting their Sunday funnies from 8 pages to 6. This story (which is a week old), talks about the community reaction:In a nutshell: only 250 responded. 250. That’s it.

The 12 newspapers that McClatchy plans to sell to finance the purchase of Knight Ridder are a bit closer to knowing who their next bosses may be. The LA Times reports that there are three potential bidders: Yucaipa Cos (a Los Angeles investment firm), MediaNews Group Inc, and Gannett Co. McClatchy Co.’s planned sale of […]

There is a possibility that the Boston Globe may cut additional staff jobs after its revenue dropped 12 percent last month. Last year the Globe let go of 130 of its staff. According to sources, he told department heads that no decisions have been made yet on whether there will be staff reductions. He specifically […]

McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt admits that even within the next ten years, the online revenue of newspapers will not surpass that of the print versions. Pruitt believes, touchingly, in newspapers. He tells me that newspapers’ online revenues may not exceed print revenues even 10 years hence, which is probably right, and that the growth of […]

E&P has a good summary article regarding the now official purchase of Knight Ridder by McClatchy that was first reported in the New York Times yesterday. Of interest is the price ($4.5 Billion – capital B) and that McClatchy will sell 12 of the newly acquired KR newspapers. See quote below for details on that.Early […]

Another major newspaper is planning to cut jobs. This time its the Washington Post who will be buying out 80 positions throughout the 800 employee company.Other cost cuts also are being rumored, including the eventual closing of at least two foreign bureaus and changes to some other overseas bureaus that would have staffers working out […]

I’ve let the story simmer for a while until something more certain has emerged, but it does look like the McClatchy Company is in the lead to buy Knight Ridder. The bid is in the area of $4.8 Billion!If McClatchy wins the bidding, it would be buying a company twice its size. While McClatchy publishes […]

Editor and Publisher has contacted Stacy and posted a story with some more information about his dismissal with The Times. Curtis, 34, who believes he was let go in a cost-cutting move, expressed surprise at the decision. “The newspaper pushed ‘local, local, local’ all the time, so I felt my job was pretty secure,” he […]

From Mark Anderson’s blog comes news that editorial cartoonist Stacy Curtis has been let go from his gig at Times of Northwest Indiana.Fellow Chicago area cartoonist Stacy Curtis was unceremoniously escorted out of his job at the NWI Times yesterday. Curtis was allowed only his car keys, coat and what he brought in with him […]

The Austin Weekly has a good article on the lack of diversity on the comics page and how many newspapers are demanding more minority characters – and not just supporting/background colors.It?s an awareness that has propelled many Chicago papers to take a serious look at their minority representation, in not only their news sections, but […]

With the ink still wet on the announcement that Aaron McGruder is taking a six month break from his “Boondocks” feature, syndicates and newspapers are scrambling to fill the void. Here’s a run down of the ripple effect:Washingon Post Writers Group is moving the launch of a new feature called “Watch Your Head” up to […]