April 26, 2004
Editorial Cartoonists Never Die...
Well they do, but as far as young editorialists are concerned, it takes too long, and they're hogging all the jobs.
Here's an article from the Lexington Herald-Leader about the AAEC's convention which has just wound up.
"It's cheaper and less controversial to use syndicated cartoons drawn elsewhere, rather than pay a staff member to depict the mayor as a drooling, slope-browed moron, they said.
"What's happened with newspapers in the last 20 years is that we don't want to make anyone unhappy," said R.C. Harvey, a comics historian who has drawn for many newspapers and magazines over the last several decades.
"For Christ's sake, what kind of a newspaper is that, if you don't get anybody mad?" Harvey asked. "Why even publish a newspaper if you're not going to make waves?"
About 90 daily newspapers in the United States, roughly half the number that did in the 1980s, employ a full-time editorial cartoonist, said Matt Davies of the Westchester (N.Y.) Journal News, president-elect of the association.
Among the larger papers to drop their cartoonists are the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press.
"Are we going to end up with three or four cartoonists? I don't know, but I hope not," said Davies, who presumably strengthened his own job security April 5 by winning the Pulitzer Prize.
Newspapers facing a shrinking readership -- and that's nearly all of them -- should realize the value of local cartoonists, Davies said.
People love to hate their local cartoonists, he said."
Check out the full article:
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/8508902.htm