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December 20, 2003
STILL KICKING
Editor & Publisher Reminds Everyone Why Editorial Cartoonists are Important to Newspapers
By Dave Astor
"There are a lot of excellent editorial cartoonists out there, and a lot of them are unemployed," says Mike Ritter, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.
There are perhaps 90 full-time editorial cartoonists on a U.S. daily – down from a 20th-century peak of more than 200.
Why the precipitous decline in jobs? Fewer newspapers is one reason cited by Bruce Plante, the AAEC’s immediate past president.
But there are additional factors that are keeping creators out of work. Ritter says some newspapers view staff cartoonists as "expensive luxuries" in these budget-conscious times. Instead, they purchase syndicated drawings (many of them by staff cartoonists at other newspapers) for a few bucks a week.
"It’s emblematic of short-term thinking at some newspapers – mortgaging the future to make this quarter’s profit objectives," observes Nick Anderson, editorial cartoonist for The Courier-Journal in Louisville and the Washington Post Writers Group. He says readers are often more "engaged" by local cartoons than national ones.
Some newspapers fear that hard-hitting local cartoons may anger readers, including the advertisers and politicians with whom some publishers play golf. But Ritter, of Tribune Newspapers in Arizona and King Features Syndicate, says newspapers should welcome the way editorial cartoons elicit strong reactions.
"I believe people buy newspapers for personality, which editorial cartoonists can provide," he says. "Some editors and publishers assume angry letters and canceled subscriptions are the only responses. They don’t see that people maintain subscriptions because the newspaper has personality."
Lalo Alcaraz, who does editorial cartoons for LA Weekly and Universal Press Syndicate, says: "I think readers love and appreciate cartoonists more than some editorial people do."
Anderson adds: "Editorial cartoons galvanize readers. And they’re a window into the news for young readers. They spark their curiosity to read about issues so they can understand the cartoons."
It also makes sense for newspapers to run editorial cartoons because "we live in a visual culture," says cartoonist Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and United Feature Syndicate. "Unfortunately, in today’s society, people don’t have a lot of time to read. Editorial cartoon images are immediate," adds Mike Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times and Copley News Service, while emphasizing that the best editorial cartoons are "more about journalism than entertainment."
Plante, of the Chattanooga Times Free Press and Universal, observes: "Surveys say readers want the graphic element, local content, and local commentary. We do all three."
There are other trends in the profession besides a paucity of positions. One is the growing group of editorial cartoonists (approximately 20) who also draw syndicated comics.
"It’s a creative challenge, a way to make extra money, and insurance for losing a job," says Jeff Stahler, the Cincinnati Post and Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) editorial cartoonist who also does the "Moderately Confused" comic panel for NEA. Alcaraz, meanwhile, creates the "La Cucuracha" comic strip syndicated by Universal.
In recent decades, more editorial cartoons have featured comic-type jokes about the news rather than hard-hitting commentary (with their creators often rewarded by getting reprinted in outlets such as Newsweek). But several interviewees say a more serious approach may be gaining ground again – partly in response to 9/11 and the Iraq war.
And some cartoonists who pulled their punches against George W. Bush for fear of being labeled unpatriotic are now pummeling the president.
But taking on some other targets has been risky this year. For instance, Dick Locher (of Tribune Media Services) and Tony Auth (of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Universal) were flooded with complaints from Jewish organizations after they did cartoons critical of Israeli policies. Jews, Catholics, Muslims, African-Americans, and other groups have complained for years about certain editorial cartoons, but the digital age makes it easier to start e-mail protest campaigns.
The digital age also affects cartoonists in positive ways. They receive plenty of valuable e-mail feedback from individual readers, they can conduct research on the Web, use the computer to add effects and color to their drawings, quickly transmit cartoons to syndicates and clients, and have their work seen in places where they don’t appear in a newspaper.
Some of these Web readers are fellow cartoonists. "We can all immediately look at each other’s work," says Alcaraz. "It helps in not duplicating ideas or in coming up with better ideas."
Even as the number of cartoon jobs goes down, the number of cartoons in major repositories rises. This year, more than 35,000 cartoons from Art Wood’s collection and 14,000 cartoons by late Washington Post/Creators Syndicate legend Herblock went to the Library of Congress. Obviously, that institution realizes the importance of a venerable newspaper craft.
"If the newspaper is to be the watchdog of the government," concludes Rogers, "no one can bark louder than the cartoonist."
–E&P Online, October 2003