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Article By: RickLondon
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Newspaper Cartoons: Why They Exist
Have any idea why newspapers print a full page of cartoons every day when they bring in no money?
Comics do bring newspapers money. They simply do so in a different way than news pages.
Newspaper comics create loyalty, and usually while the reader is very young and reads nothing but the comics. Newspaper publishers are not ignorant, and they know loyalty sells papers and circulation sells advertising.
Though journalists are highly trained professionals, cartoonists are the backbone of any paper. They can tell a full page story in a box. They can focus on current events or remain generic, but they are still telling a story.
The publisher spoon feeds us comics at a young age for a reason. And it is not just to make us laugh, it is to make us used to reading that paper.
A reader also knows, whether subconsciously or not that if laughter happens early in the day, it can affect the whole mood of the day. And if it is a really good cartoon, it is one that others may have seen and can be talked about at the water cooler or Starbuck's before work.
A savvy newspaper wants a majority of cartoons to be "family-friendly" but also wants a mix of "somewhat controversial" or "different", though certainly reader-friendly to offset and appeal to college and post-grad level readers who may only have time to skim the paper, but will always go straight to their favorite cartoon, often before reading the news.
Peanuts Creator Charles "Sparky" Shulz put comics on the map. He was not a great artist, but he knew what we wanted.
Schulz knew that no matter how famous or successful we got, we still were in touch with that little boy/girl loser inside all of us as a child. He produced Charlie Brown to reflect that "inner loser". It worked.
Gary Larson understood clearly that college students and baby boomers liked comics too. And they didn't always like mainstream rated "G" comics. It was an experiment to create one that dealt with the intellect and it worked.
Many cartoonists have tried to reach the level of another Peanuts or Far Side. It is not an easy task. Schulz had an inventory of tens of thousands of strips over the years and Larson had over 5000 before retiring. Both capitalized on licensing their products onto calendars, greeting cards, mugs, and other products.
Cartoons exist because the public wants them to exist. If the public didn't want them, the editor would cut the page in a minute. It is a costly page and no advertising is sold on it. It is only there to build loyalty as I mentioned. To the editor, the fact that it makes us smile is simply icing on the cake; as long as we keep buying the paper.
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