By: Dave Astor Another newspaper is without a local editorial cartoonist.
J.P. Trostle resigned last week as a designer and illustrator at The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C. As part of that job, he also did editorial cartoons for the newspaper's Chapel Hill Herald edition.
Trostle told E&P Monday that he had arranged with his editor to continue doing a weekly local cartoon for the Chapel Hill Herald on a freelance basis for $25 a drawing. But upper management at the Paxton Media Group parent company "nixed" the plan, Trostle added.
Why did he leave the designer/illustrator post at The Herald-Sun? "It was not a good place to work any more," replied Trostle, who joined the paper in July 2000 and began doing cartoons for the Chapel Hill Herald a month later.
Paxton laid off more than 80 of 350 staffers after buying The Herald-Sun about a year ago. Among those axed were editorial cartoonist John Cole (E&P Online, Jan. 7, 2005).
"Paxton says it values local content, yet it fires local columnists and its cartoonist," said Trostle. He added that whether or not readers agree with local commentators, cartoonists and columnists "engage readers and give them one more reason to pick up a paper and pay attention to it."
Trostle will make a living doing Web graphics and designing and editing books. For instance, he has worked with Universal Press Syndicate cartoonist Ted Rall on several books -- including the upcoming "Attitude 3: The Subversive New Media Cartoonists." Also, Trostle edited the 2004-published "Attack of the Political Cartoonists" for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC). Trostle receives a stipend from the AAEC for serving as news editor of EditorialCartoonists.com and editor of the organization's "Notebook" magazine.
"My job [at the Paxton papers] was getting in the way of my career," joked Trostle, who did note that he'd like to find a new outlet for his cartoons.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here