THE EVAPORATING EDITOONIST

At the ComicsReporter, Tom Spurgeon doesn’t think talking about the evaporating newspaper editorial cartoonist is enough. “The decline of staffed editorial cartooning positions is beyond the point where a bunch of strong assertions cleverly made and presented with passion will convince newspapers that what they're doing isn't necessary. I don't see anything here that would convince me as a newspaper editor that I wouldn't be better off simply picking up a syndicated Ted Rall cartoon or taking my staff cartoonist investment and hiring a video blogger. Once again, I challenge Ted Rall and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists [of which Rall is currently president] to come up with five models of newspaper-cartoonist relationships that work for those newspapers, specific examples and detailed reasons why they work, and how newspapers can develop that within their own publications. Having not one but two skilled cartoonists sure didn't save the Rocky Mountain News. Fair or not, that's the tenor of the conversation right now.”

Spurgeon has a point, a good one. I’m not in deep enough to speak with broad authority, but I can think of a few instances of “newspaper-cartoonist relationships that work.” The classic irrefutable instance was Herblock at the Washington Post — and today, his successor, Tom Toles. Both were/are powerful voices that lent stature to their newspaper. And Ann Telnaes with her animations on the Washington Post’s website is another instance of a cartoonist making a difference for a newspaper. At least, the Post thinks so: after trying her brand of cartooning online for a few months, they increased the number of animations to three a week, and Telnaes is now making a living wage. Spurgeon is right that a cry of anguish, however carefully couched in reasonable albeit forceful argument, will not, itself, save editorial cartooning. But Spurgeon’s expecting editorial cartoonists (like Ed Stein and Drew Litton at the Rocky Mountain News) to save their papers — to rescue them from the bad financial decisions made by management — is going too far. Spurgeon has lofted a faux weather balloon with this expectation.