Editorial Cartoon Group Prez Hits Huge Payout to Former Tribune Co. Boss -- And Delivers 'Top 10' List

By: Dave Astor What's one way the beleaguered editorial cartooning profession can respond to another newspaper exec getting a huge payout? With a David Letterman-like top-10 list.

When the Chicago Tribune reported Friday that former Tribune Co. boss Dennis FitzSimons would get an additional $3 million in a package that now tops $41 million, E&P contacted Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) President Nick Anderson for a reaction.

Just over two years ago, in Dec. 2005, the AAEC staged a "Black Ink Monday" protest against the loss of editorial cartooning jobs. A big reason for the action was that cartooning positions were being eliminated or not filled at several Tribune Co. papers -- including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and The Sun of Baltimore.

So, given that those papers allegedly can't afford staff editorial cartoonists, what does Anderson think of their Tribune Co. parent being able to afford a $41-million-plus buyout? "I think it's disgraceful that Mr. FitzSimons only came out with $41 million in the deal," Anderson said in a tongue-in-cheek e-mail. "After all that he's done in the service of great journalism, this pittance is an insult."

Anderson added that he "consulted members of the AAEC board, and we came up with fund-raising ideas so we can give this poor soul his due."

Then Anderson -- a 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner whose Houston Chronicle cartoons are syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group -- listed the "top-10 ways that Dennis FitzSimons can get a bigger payoff." They are:

"10. Laid-off journalists sign over their unemployment checks to help a poor executive out.

"9. Tribune readers send him a quarter every day for each feature they look for in the paper but can't find because of one of his layoffs.

"8. All remaining Tribune staffers forward any journalism prize money over to him since they couldn't have done it without him.

"7. Auction off Tribune Tower on eBay and give him the proceeds.

"6. Lease out vacant office space at other Tribune papers to generate monthly cash flow for Mr. FitzSimons.

"5. Corrupt politicians benefiting from fewer investigative journalists create a foundation for him.

"4. Overworked journalists taking on the extra load in the wake of layoffs squeeze in just a little more time to have a bake sale in his honor.

"3. Cartoonists hold a benefit auction of original art in his honor for all that he's done to ensure the survival of editorial cartooning in America.

"2. Get a Hollywood studio to buy the movie rights for his heroic life story of public service.

"1. Remaining staffers at Tribune papers sell a kidney to go the extra mile for Fitz."

FitzSimons' payout, according to Friday's Tribune story, includes about $17.7 million in severance and other monies along with $23.8 million in cashed-out stock holdings that accumulated over his Tribune Co. career. FitzSimons -- who had been the company's chairman, president, and chief executive -- had no comment to the Tribune newspaper on the reported $3-million additional payment.

For the Dec. 12, 2005, "Black Ink Monday" protest, AAECers drew more than 100 cartoons about job cuts. The organization also urged readers to e-mail the Tribune Co. Daryl Cagle said on his editorial cartoon blog back then that he was CCed more than 1,000 of those e-mails, but a Tribune Co. spokesman denied receiving that many.

That spokesman also said at the time that each Tribune Co.-owned newspaper, not the parent firm, makes the decision about whether or not to have a staff editorial cartoonist.