AAEC Prez Praises Two Papers That Think Staff Cartoonists Are Necessary

By: Dave Astor The president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) congratulated the Tulsa (Okla.) World for hiring a cartoonist and the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press for planning to hire one.

As E&P reported yesterday
the World chose Bruce Plante of the Times Free Press to succeed the late Doug Marlette. And the Times Free Press said it plans to replace Plante. That makes both newspapers somewhat unusual in an era when the number of staff editorial cartoonists is shrinking.

AAEC President Nick Anderson said in a statement that the Oklahoma and Tennessee dailies "recognize that newspapers have to invest in creating their own content to thrive in a challenging business environment. A lot of publishers seem to think their readers can't tell the difference between a staff cartoonist and syndicated material. Not only is this condescending, it's wrong."

Anderson, of the Houston Chronicle, added: "I don't think it's a coincidence that major newspapers that have eliminated high-profile positions like a staff editorial cartoonist seem to be in disarray, while others seem to be holding their own. Building reader loyalty and your own local 'brand' requires creating your own content, and a staff editorial cartoonist is a high-visibility way of achieving that. This is especially true in today's society, which studies say responds strongly and consistently to visual content.

"Newspaper chains that are slashing their staffs are in a race to the bottom, and that's exactly where they're going to end up."

Anderson, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group.