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December 28, 2005
Black Ink After Math: Just How Many Letters Did the Tribune Receive?
Last week, Editor & Publisher's Dave Astor covered the debate over the volume of e-mail generated by the recent 'Black Ink Monday' online protest, and the growing controversy over what the Tribune Company said they received — and what the AAEC knows was sent their way.
In their Dec. 12 "Black Ink Monday" action to protest job cuts, editorial cartoonists not only drew cartoons but also urged readers to send e-mails to Tribune Co. Vice President of Corporate Communications Gary Weitman.
How many messages did Weitman receive because of the protest? Daryl Cagle mentioned on his editorial cartoon blog that he has been CCed more than 1,000 e-mails to Weitman. Cagle, when reached by E&P, added that Weitman also undoubtedly received other e-mails that weren't CCed to the blog. (Protest organizers Clay Bennett, of the Christian Science Monitor, and Rob Rogers, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reported receiving a number of e-mails from readers around the country who CCed them copies of their letters to Weitman.)
But Weitman, also reached the same day by E&P, said the 1,000-plus figure is "not accurate." He said the amount of e-mails is lower, but declined to give an exact number.
Cagle, after seeing Weitman quoted in the Chicago Reader as promising to answer all the e-mails, asked his blog visitors to CC him some of Weitman's replies. Everyone who wrote Cagle on that subject said they hadn't heard from Weitman yet.
Weitman told E&P he'll respond to the messages. "I take seriously the e-mails I get sent," he said.
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), which organized "Black Ink Monday," urged readers to e-mail Weitman because some of the most prominent losses of editorial cartoon jobs have been at Tribune Co.-owned papers. Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher accepted a buyout at The Sun of Baltimore effective next month, and the paper said it doesn't plan to replace him in the foreseeable future. The Sun's Mike Lane previously accepted a buyout in July 2004. Also, the Los Angeles Times announced last month that it was laying off Michael Ramirez at the end of 2005 and eliminating the position. And the Chicago Tribune never replaced Jeff MacNelly after he died in 2000.
But Weitman noted that other Tribune Co. papers -- including Newsday of Melville, N.Y., The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale -- still have staff cartoonists. "Each of our newspapers makes its own decision about editorial cartoonists," he said, adding that Tribune Co. papers that don't have staff cartoonists still run syndicated editorial cartoons -- many of which come from the Tribune Co.-owned Tribune Media Services syndicate.
Weitman continued: "The Tribune Co. has a tremendous amount of respect for the editorial cartooning profession and editorial cartoonists themselves."
On "Black Ink Monday," the AAEC's EditorialCartoonists.com Web site posted 106 cartoons protesting job cuts in the profession. A number of those cartoons also ran in the print and Web editions of newspapers.
But Cagle noted that the more than 1,000 e-mails may have had a bigger impact. "It's much more effective to have our fans complain than for editorial cartoonists to complain about our situation," said the creator, who's with MSNBC.com and the Cagle Cartoons syndicate. "I think editors don't appreciate how huge the fan base for cartoons is."
Cagle, a former president of the National Cartoonists Society, added that many editorial cartoon fans are young people who newspapers want as readers.
—J.P Trostle contributed to this article
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