Newspaper Cartoons: Why They Exist

Newspapers run a full page called "the comics page" in which they receive no revenue. Why do they do it?

Comics do bring newspapers money. They simply do so in a different way than news pages.

Even though ad sales is the bread and butter of nearly all periodicals, most publishers understand that building loyalty and building it when the reader is young is mandatory.

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.

A reader who started reading a paper years ago, may not even be consciously aware that the quality of the paper has gone down (or up), but he/she does know that a cartoon will be there that will make them laugh.

The publisher and editor also knows that even after loyalty has been created, the average reader wants some comic relief as most news is bad news. If the reading gets too rough, he/she can always flip a few pages to the comics and smile.

Unfotunately, the newspaper is not always the best-bet for finding the comic you like. The Far Side, for instance was an experiment. Newspapers traditionally choose family-friendly comics that the family can share and laugh at together. The Far Side targeted a bit more intellectual audience.

Cartoons also can be very influential. Charles "Sparky" Schulz knew that when creating "Peanuts".

Charlie Brown was created by Schulz to show us our "inner loser". We all know, no matter how famous or successful we become, that inner-loser remains. Charlie Brown helped us laugh at ourselves by expressing it for us.

Gary Larson drew what he felt we were thinking. It was offbeat, and it had a cynical and distorted look at the world. But he knew in his mind we would not find it so distorted at all. In fact, the world really was distorted and he simply knew how to point it out to us with The Far Side.

Many are not aware but most newspapers only pay the cartoonist pennies for their work. The cartoonist is more likely to make a living selling licensed art image goods such as books, tshirts, mugs etc.

Cartoonist combines art and science, publishing and business. There really is no business like it in the world. It can contain a win-win element if it is done correctly by both cartoonist, publisher and manufacturer.

Article Source: http://finance-cp.com

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