But many, like Anderson, already have existing contracts with other syndicates that need to be honored.Īndrews McMeel, the home of popular newspaper features “Peanuts” and “Garfield,” has been among the beneficiaries of The Washington Post’s decision to wind down its cartoon syndication business. He could also envision syndicating some of the cartoonists that appear in its popular newsletter.

That’s what we’re hoping for, but we’ll have to wait and see.”Īnderson said if all goes well, some of the remaining comic strips at The Washington Post could come under the Counterpoint umbrella, and they might even add a columnist or two. “This has worked out really well for the cartoonists because they may come out of this unscathed. “Basically, we just said no change in pricing, no change in distribution, the bills will go to a different place, and that’s really it for now,” Anderson said. Two-time Pulitzer prize winner Nick Anderson has a popular newsletter, Counterpoint Media, which is launching a syndicate in June 2022. Washington Post cartoonists launch their own syndicate “The Post will continue to publish across platforms the comics and cartoons that our readers expect and enjoy and plans for a seamless transition from being a syndicate to a customer of other syndicates,” the newspaper said in a statement. Others will continue to be distributed by The Washington Post until their current contracts run out.īut The Washington Post will continue to syndicate its popular stable of columnists, and it’s not getting rid of its own comics pages. Some of the comic strips have already landed at other syndicates, such as “Loose Parts” and “Baby Blues,” which were picked up by Andrews McMeel. The decision came about primarily because, after a review of the business, the Post didn’t view the service as an area for growth and decided to focus on other opportunities in the industry. In February, The Washington Post began informing newspapers it would be sunsetting its cartoon syndication business, which has distributed dozens of comic strips and editorial cartoons since the early 1970s. Unfortunately, like the newspapers they serve, syndicates like King Features feel the impact of journalism's digital transformation from printed pages to pixels on a screen. Hearst began syndicating comics and other features that were popular among readers, and in 1914 launched the new business under one banner - King Features - which continues to syndicate popular comic strips like “Zits” and “Hagar the Horrible” to newspapers across the country. Thanks to the popularity of the “Yellow Kid,” journalists referred to the brutal battle between newspapers as “yellow journalism.” They used them to gain the upper hand in cross-town circulation battles that led to hyped-up headlines and wildly overstated stories. It didn’t take long for comic strips to become a serious business for newspapers. The strip featured a popular character known as the Yellow Kid, and eventually, Outcault was hired away to draw “Yellow Kid” for William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. Outcault in Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World in 1895. According to most historians, the first newspaper comic strip was “Hogan’s Alley,” drawn by Richard F. “So, that was nice, and that made up for a lot of anything we lost.”Ĭomic strips like “Tundra” occupy a special place in the history of newspapers.

“We picked up 52 newspapers, which was really kind of an unexpected surprise right during COVID,” Carpenter said. Tundra has its origins in Alaska but now appears in more than 500 newspapers across the country.

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