Tom Spurgeon, the writer behind the popular The Comics Reporter blog, has taken syndicated cartoonist and new American Association of Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) president Ted Rall to task for what he perceives to be some generality in Ted's argument against newspapers laying off their editorial cartoonists.
Jim Borgman behind his desk at The Enquirer, where he worked as their staff cartoonist for 32 years before accepting a buyout."No one needs to hear the same broad assertions again. We need to hear about specific examples of newspapers benefiting by adding cartoonists or featuring them differently," Spurgeon says about editorial cartooning as part of his 24-part plan of what he would do if he were the "emperor of comics."
Spurgeon makes the point that Rall has had a year to prepare to take the reins of the AAEC, and thus far has only been able to speak "in generalities in an editorial and an interview, just louder and more aggressively."
In the last 6 months, several editorial cartoonists have been layed-off or accepted buyouts from their staff cartooning job as the the newspaper industry continues to be hit hard by new economic models and a downturn in the economy.
In the last three weeks, Peter Dunlap-Shohl of the Anchorage Daily News, Richard Crowson of the Witchita Eagle, and Jim Borgman of the Cincinnatti Enquirer have all accepted buyouts from their long-time positions.
"Everyone knows the kind of thing I'm talking about, because you've heard the same thing for years: local cartooning is the future, papers are shooting themselves in the foot by not investing in cartoonists, cartoonists are the most popular feature in the paper, cartoonists are unique to newspapers, blah, blah, blah," Spurgeon says.
"If there aren't some very focused initiatives and ideas that find purchase soon, people are going to continue to be fired -- not the general idea of people, but real people."
-------------------------------
More from Politicker.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe:
Post new comment