Copley Launches Download Site

By: Dave Astor Copley News Service launched a new download Web site on Aug. 5.

It even includes an "Editors Challenge" daily trivia game featuring prizes such as "Copley cash" good toward the online purchase of syndicated content.

The site (http://www.copleynews.com) offers about 80 columns a week as well as the work of nine editorial cartoonists and four comic-strip creators. There are also 26 special packages a year, editorials, photos, graphics, caricatures, and more. Content changes every day, and new stories from Copley bureaus appear several times a day.

"Editors can find content on the site in one of two ways," said Copley Editorial Director Glenda Winders. "They can go directly to the customized downloads form and select exactly what they want, or, if they want to browse, they can use one of the advanced search forms."

In about two months, Copley will no longer distribute copy and photos via postal mail. Copley is hoping the weekly and small-daily newspapers still receiving content that way will switch to the download method.

The syndicate has about 1,500 regular clients, including large and small print newspapers, online newspapers, and non-newspaper Web sites. Copley's site can also be used by one-shot subscribers -- such as, say, a dental publication that sees a dental-related cartoon it wants to buy and reprint.

Systems Web Coordinator Chris Rowe has been among those at Copley working to set up the download site. One thing he did as part of this process was study the sites of other major syndicates.

No staffers are being laid off because of the download site. Winders noted that about a half-dozen mailroom and photo-lab employees -- some of whom have been with Copley for many years -- were retrained as Web technicians.

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'Abby' Founder Has Alzheimer's

Her Daughter Has Been Doing Column

"Dear Abby" founder Pauline Phillips has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Her family said the deterioration of her memory has been slow, and that her physical health remains good.

Phillips, 84, started "Dear Abby" in 1956. The Universal Press Syndicate-distributed column is now written by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips.

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King Adds Advice Writers

Cohen and Rubenstein Are Signed

The post-Ann Landers landscape continues to evolve as another major syndicate enters the general-advice-column arena.

King Features Syndicate signed Harlan Cohen, and will distribute his feature starting Aug. 19. Cohen had been self-syndicating "Help Me, Harlan!" since early 1996, and now has about 75 clients -- including many college newspapers.

"I'm so excited to be able to get my column out to more readers," said Cohen, who will now write two features -- a twice-weekly one for King, and a separate column for college clients.

King Managing Editor Glenn Mott said "Help Me, Harlan!" appeals to young adults but also has a following among older readers. He added that the Chicago-based Cohen brings a rare male perspective to the mostly female syndicated advice field.

"He's a good writer with a sense of humor and a style that is very punchy," said Mott.

Cohen, 29, said not having to handle his own sales will give him more time to devote to his column and to speaking engagements that enable him to meet readers around the country.

Mott reported that King has also been syndicating "Ask CosmoGIRL!" since shortly before Landers died on June 22. It has about 20 clients, including the Detroit Free Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The weekly advice column, primarily aimed at girls 10 to 18, is written exclusively for King by CosmoGIRL! Editor in Chief Atoosa Rubenstein. Her popular magazine is published by the Hearst Corp., which also owns King.

The advice-column category has definitely been changing this summer. Columns already syndicated before Landers' death -- including the daily "Dear Abby" by Jeanne Phillips of Universal Press Syndicate and the now-thrice-weekly "Tell Me About It" by Carolyn Hax of the Washington Post Writers Group -- added to their client lists. Creators Syndicate - which distributed Landers - introduced the daily "Annie's Mailbox" by former Landers assistants Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, signed the twice-weekly "Dear Prudence" that Landers' daughter Margo Howard writes for Slate.com, and signed the weekly "Ask the Advice Goddess" formerly self-syndicated by Amy Alkon. Also, United Media started syndicating the thrice-weekly "Sense and Sensitivity" by Harriette Cole.

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Column Helps Ailing Mauldin

Cartoonist Is In Calif. Nursing Home

Legendary editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin is getting more visits from fellow World War II veterans thanks to the efforts of an Orange County (Calif.) Register columnist.

Metro columnist Gordon Dillow heard that the 80-year-old Mauldin was at an Orange County nursing home and in poor physical and mental health. He also heard that one of the few things that seemed to help Mauldin feel a little better was when the cartoonist was visited by World War II veterans. Mauldin's famous World War II cartoons featuring ordinary soldiers Willie and Joe won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1945, at the age of 23. He went on to have a distinguished career as a syndicated cartoonist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Chicago Sun-Times before retiring about 10 years ago.

After receiving permission from Mauldin's family, Dillow wrote a July 30 column asking World War II veterans if they would visit or send cards to the ailing cartoonist. He received hundreds and hundreds of responses. "They're still coming in," Dillow told E&P Online last week. "It's amazing how big this guy was to that generation."

Dillow wrote of Mauldin: "World War II was the most important time of his life, and it's as if hearing stories of those days in Sicily and Italy and France, even from a stranger, somehow reconnects him to the world. He may or may not be able to talk back, but for those moments his eyes come alive again."

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Ex-NSNC Head Heading To Japan

Columnist Will Spend Six Months There

Journalist. Japan. January to June. For Pete Rowe, 2003 will be the year of the "J."

Rowe, who recently completed a two-year term as president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, has accepted a Fulbright grant to spend six months in or near Tokyo.

"I'm grateful to be in a profession where something like this can happen," said The San Diego Union-Tribune columnist, who'll use his time abroad to research the military/security alliance between Japan and the U.S. in a post-Sept. 11 world.

As a columnist, Rowe knows the importance of putting a human element into his writing. So, while he'll spend plenty of time in the library and talking to Japanese and American experts, Rowe also plans to speak with such people as Japanese officers-in-training to find out about their lives and expectations.

Rowe, who has done some military writing during his career, is not yet certain about what published form his 2003 findings will take. But he may do some pieces for the Union-Tribune's "Insight" section during and after his stay in Japan -- which, according to Rowe, has the largest U.S. naval base outside the U.S.

The 46-year-old Rowe said he'll miss writing his thrice-weekly local column, which he began in 1992 and hopes to resume after returning to San Diego. "When I read the Union-Tribune online in Japan, and see someone doing something wonderful or stupid, I'll think, 'I could have written my 620 words about that before breakfast!'"

Rowe, a former Union-Tribune feature editor and feature writer, does write a monthly column about beer for the paper's food section that he might continue while in Japan.

With the trip five months away, the Rowe family is already starting to learn some Japanese and looking into apartment, job, and school possibilities. Lynn Hanson-Rowe is a special-education teacher who is hoping to find at least part-time work in that area during the six months abroad. Their 13-year-old son Alec will complete 8th grade in Japan, while their other two sons, Kyle and Reid, will remain in the U.S. to attend college.

The Fulbright grant that will pay for the expenses of Pete, Lynn, and Alec is worth nearly 7 million yen (more than $50,000). Rowe was invited to apply for the grant by the Washington, D.C.-based Council for International Exchange of Scholars, which administers the Fulbright program.

This won't be Rowe's first trip to Japan. He was previously there on a two-week fellowship in 1999, and loved the politeness of the people, the feeling of being safer in Tokyo than in a big U.S. city, and other aspects of the experience.

"I really found it fascinating," Rowe said, "so I wanted to go back."

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Et cetera ...

TV programs are being developed based on three Universal Press Syndicate comics: Mark Tatulli's "Heart of the City," which stars a girl with an intense imagination; Glenn McCoy's "The Duplex," which features humans and dogs; and Bill Hinds' "Cleats," which has a children's soccer theme. The "City" show would combine live action and animation, the "Duplex" program would be live action, and the "Cleats" show would be animated. Universal made the TV deal with 'N Sync singer Lance Bass' production company -- A Happy Place of Venice, Calif. ...

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has joined more than 40 other newspapers contributing content to Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. ...

Creators Syndicate commentator Don Feder is taking a sabbatical from his Boston Herald column after 19 years. ...

A stage show based on "Garfield" by Jim Davis of Universal is touring the country. ...

The board of directors of Andrews McMeel Universal (parent of Universal) named Les Hinmon chief financial officer and vice president, Stacey Perry corporate vice president of finance, and Randy Herr retirement plan administrator. ...

"Staying Safe," a weekly column on security and crime prevention, is being syndicated. It's written by Bruce Mandelblit (brucemorl@aol.com).

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