Brazil's Former Prez Writes Column

By: Dave Astor The former president of Brazil is writing a monthly world-affairs column for the New York Times Syndicate (NYTS).

Fernando Henrique Cardoso was president of the South American country from 1995 to this January. He began his career as a sociologist and author.

The column -- available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese -- originates in Brazil's O Globo newspaper.

NYTS is also syndicating a monthly world-affairs column by novelist Frederick Forsyth, who was a journalist before becoming known as the author of international thrillers. He was a foreign correspondent for Reuters from 1961 to 1965, and also worked for the BBC.

Forsyth's books -- which have sold more than 70 million copies worldwide -- include The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File.

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Cronkite Column Sells Well

More Than 100 Newspapers Pick It Up

Walter Cronkite's column has been picked up by more than 100 newspapers since its Aug. 3 launch -- an unusually successful debut in today's syndication climate.

The former CBS anchor's weekly opinion feature (Syndicate World, June 19) is distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Clients include the Albany, N.Y., Times Union, The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, the Detroit Free Press, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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News Service Exec Dies at Age 56

Mike Duggan Helped Start KRT in 1973

Mike Duggan, who helped establish what is now Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service 30 years ago, died of a heart attack Aug. 15 in his Fairfax, Va., home. He was 56.

Duggan served as news editor, managing editor, and director of KRT. He also helped establish and became director of KRT Special Sections, KRT Campus, and KRT Syndication.

The Detroit native and Vietnam war veteran started his career at the Detroit Free Press.

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AAEC Gets Involved With NIE

Editorial Cartoons in the Classroom

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) has begun working with Newspapers in Education to better use editorial cartoons as a classroom tool.

According to an e-mail sent by AAEC President Bruce Plante to association members, cartoonists can e-mail their work to Felix Grabowski (cftc@nieonline.com). Among the cartoons being sought are caricatures of President Bush and those with political symbolism.

"This is one project we members of the AAEC cannot afford to neglect," wrote Plante, who is with the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press.

Speaking of Plante, Times Free Press Executive Editor Tom Griscom did an Aug. 10 column for the paper about the cartoonist throwing out the first pitch (to his son) at a Pittsburgh Pirates game in June. (The AAEC held its annual convention in Pittsburgh that month.)

Griscom wrote that Plante was thrilled to get on a Major League mound after a life that included making the University of Arkansas baseball team as a walk-on, being told at a Cincinnati Reds tryout that he was a good pitcher but needed to be taller, and coaching Little League for 17 years.

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Tribute Cartoons for Bob Hope

They'll Travel to D.C. and Then Go Abroad

The USO will display cartoons about Bob Hope at its annual gala Oct. 10 in Washington, D.C.

Entertainers scheduled to perform at the event include Ann Margret and Jessica Simpson.

The cartoons will subsequently travel abroad to Department of Defense schools, where cartoonists will also conduct chalk talks for military families. A year later, originals will be auctioned to raise funds for the Bob and Delores Hope Foundation.

For more information, contact Carl Nelson (cnelson@cartoonartassociation.org).

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Art Wood Collection Is Acquired

Library of Congress Makes it Official Aug. 26

The Library of Congress is holding a press briefing Aug. 26 to announce the acquisition of more than 30,000 cartoon originals from the collection of Art Wood.

The collection -- which includes editorial cartoons, comics, illustrations, animation cels, and more from three centuries -- was formerly showcased at the National Gallery of Caricature and Cartoon Art. That museum opened in Washington, D.C., in 1995 but closed two years later due to inadequate funding.

Wood, who started collecting around 1940, was a political cartoonist for the Washington Star and other newspapers. He is scheduled to appear at the briefing.

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Advice Column Doubles Frequency

Cole Writes 'Sense & Sensitivity' for United

Advice columnist Harriette Cole is increasing the frequency of her "Sense & Sensitivity" feature from three to six times a week starting Sept. 1, according to United Feature Syndicate.

Cole appears in about 25 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, the Detroit Free Press, and The Oregonian of Portland.

Also, the columnist/author/entrepreneur/former editor is a panelist on the new reality dating show Perfect Match: New York.

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'Sucks' to Be Tolerated in Comics

'Boston Globe' Is Changing Policy

The Boston Globe is reluctantly allowing the word "sucks" in its comics section, according to an Aug. 18 column by ombud Christine Chinlund.

Several syndicated strips -- including "Zits" and "Doonesbury" -- have recently used variations of the word. Chinlund wrote that "the lack of protest" at the use of "sucks" in an Aug. 7 "FoxTrot" comic "is perhaps a sign that readers have come to see the word as more slang than vulgarity."

Globe Editor Martin Baron told Chinlund: "While we seek to maintain high standards in the use of language, a few cartoonists use raw language on rare occasions. Theirs is a creative enterprise, and we feel that we have to give them some license."

Chinlund added: "While the s-word can now appear in comics, it will continue to be highly discouraged in news text, allowed only in quotes, and even then edited out whenever possible. And the Globe still bans certain other words from the comics. For example, the 'Doonesbury' strip submitted for Friday was substituted because the original contained a three-letter word for rear end."

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'Chicago Tribune' Launches Blog

Columnist Eric Zorn Hopes to Be Amusing

by Carl Sullivan

The Chicago Tribune has launched its first Web log, written by columnist Eric Zorn.

The blog is "a frequently updated journal containing observations, reports, tips, referrals, tirades, and whatever else happens to be in my notebook," Zorn said in a statement. "My goal is to make 'Breaking Views' useful, provocative, and amusing, sometimes all at once."

The Tribune said Zorn was the first columnist at the paper to invite e-mail from readers in 1993, and the first with his own Web site in 1997.

Blogs are a popular Web phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of individuals writing periodically on their own sites about a variety of topics. Independent journalists and commentators such as Andrew Sullivan have widely read blogs, and a few mainstream media outlets, such as The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., and the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, allow some of their writers to blog.

The Tribune is probably the largest newspaper in the U.S. to run a blog on its Web site.

Zorn hopes "readers will bookmark the site and peek in regularly enough to persuade the decision makers in the fancy offices that I'm not out of my mind in leading the Tribune into this emerging hybrid media form."

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Et cetera ...

Andrews McMeel Publishing is releasing two comic collections: Wall-to-Wall Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott of King Features Syndicate, and Soup to Nutz: The First Course by Rick Stromoski of Newspaper Enterprise Association.

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Editor's note: This November, E&P is scheduled to run its third annual "Features of the Year" spread. If you have any syndicated features you'd like to nominate, please e-mail Dave Astor (at the address below) their names and a brief explanation of why you feel they're having a particularly good 2003. The four categories include best comic, best editorial cartoons, best column, and best feature. The last category can include non-Op-Ed columns, puzzles, children's features, paginated pages, etc.