For a week or so in early August, it looked as if the number
of full-time staff editorial cartooners would drop to an all-time low of 79
(from 101 in May 2008, if you’re pegging these things). Matt Davies, the Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist at the Journal News in White Plains, NY,
was, briefly, among the 50 employees of the paper whose staff positions were
scheduled to be eliminated effective August 28.
Then all of a sudden, the management had second thoughts — or realized
what they were about to do — and said, Oh, no, not Matt Davies. And he was back
among the living.
Davies, interviewed by Alan Gardner at
DailyCartoonist.com, said, somewhat jocularly: “My paper looked down the cold
and terrible barrel of not having an editorial cartoonist on staff and just
couldn’t do it.” Actually, it wasn’t quite that simple, Davies explained in a
less jesting manner: “The paper’s readers owe a big thanks to my editor Henry
Freeman who quietly worked to ensure that my position was revived and
ultimately kept alive during a particularly bruising round of downsizing in our
newsroom. The clear message is that no matter how small a newspaper payroll
needs to be in order for a paper to turn a profit, a decent staff cartoonist
who connects with the audience is a smart part of that profit strategy. While I
am of course personally relieved, my thoughts are with my talented and
venerated colleagues who didn’t survive the cuts this week.”
Meanwhile, Gary Markstein took a buyout at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he’d
lost his editooning gig several years ago but continued on staff doing
illustration and page design. His editoons will continue in syndication, as
before, and he also has another job: he draws the comic strip Daddy’s Home, written by Tony Rubino and syndicated by Creators.
So Markstein is, in a manner of speaking, employed, even though he isn’t likely
to get rich as a syndicated editooner or by splitting the revenue of a third
tier circulation comic strip with a co-creator and the syndicate. Since
Marstein wasn’t on the May 2008 list of 101 full-time staff editoonists that
we’re using to keep score, his departure doesn’t reduce the total; and since
Davies is back among the living, the total number of full-time staff editorial
cartoonists stands at 80.
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