Growth Spurt for Monitor Wire

By: Dave Astor When the Christian Science Monitor News Service (CSMNS) entered its 30th-anniversary year in 2002, it had 36 newspaper clients. Twenty months later, it has more than 125.

How did CSMNS triple its subscriber list in so short a time -- and during a recession, at that? The reasons are both local and global.

The Boston-based news service was marketed by major syndicates such as United Media and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate before bringing things in-house in January 2002.

Managing Publisher Steve Gray explained that the news service would get a bump in clients when it signed with a syndicate, but then sales would slow. Major syndicates market dozens of features, meaning they can't always focus on selling a specific one and can't be an expert on everything on their rosters.

"We really know the content," said Gray, who works with CSMNS, The Christian Science Monitor newspaper, and the CSMonitor.com site.

"I attend each of the paper's Page One meetings. I'm the eyes and ears [for clients]," added CSMNS Business Manager Dan Lawrence. The information he gathers -- such as which stories Monitor editors consider most interesting -- gets passed on to subscribers via e-mail alerts.

Given the Monitor's reputation for putting international news in context, a post-9/11 world has also contributed to CSMNS's growth.

"Editors realize that readers want to understand the world situation better," said Gray. "We try to cover why things happen and what's going to happen next" -- while also offering breaking news.

Post-9/11 interest in foreign news is also reflected in the number of visitors to the Monitor's site rising from 650,000 to nearly 3 million visitors a month during the past two years.

The 75,639-circulation Monitor has eight foreign bureaus -- in Beijing, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Moscow, New Delhi, and Paris -- as well as 10 domestic bureaus. The 25 to 30 news and feature stories CSMNS offers each day are roughly half national and half international in content. There are also opinion pieces, editorial cartoons by Pulitzer Prize-winning Monitor editorial cartoonist Clay Bennett, photos, graphics, maps, reviews, and more.

In addition to its regular subscribers, CSMNS gets about five one-shot clients a week, said Lawrence, who staffs the news service along with National Sales Manager Lew Little, a former executive at several major syndicates.

Little mentioned that the Monitor runs a daily "Reporters on the Job" column that "often provides readers with powerful behind-the-scenes insights into world events covered by the" newspaper. He said Lawrence and himself check this column before sending alerts to CSMNS clients and prospects.

The 125-plus regular clients include nine abroad and a range of small to large papers in the U.S. Among them are The Arizona Republic of Phoenix, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Daily News, The Oregonian of Portland, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, The Seattle Times, and The Washington Times.

Anchorage Daily News Copy Desk Chief Jim Macknicki said his paper uses CSMNS content in its Sunday "Ideas" section, noting that the Monitor excels at "analysis and in-depth pieces."

Former Mercury News National/Foreign Editor Daniel Sneider, who now writes a foreign-affairs column for the San Jose paper and Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, agreed. He also said the Monitor's "foreign coverage is very strong, and they do really good news features -- the kind of things that explain events. Readers want that."

Sneider, a former Monitor correspondent, added: "In some ways, American journalism is heading in the direction where the Monitor has always been -- more news analysis and less of the who, what, where, and when."

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Few Irked by 'Doonesbury' Masturbation Strip

Editor: Readers 'Sophisticated Enough' to Handle Topic

Numerous newspapers dropped the Sept. 7 "Doonesbury" mentioning masturbation because they didn't want to offend readers. So how many readers got offended when seeing the M-word in papers that did use the comic? Very few, according to a survey of editors by E&P Online.

"We didn't get one reader call," said the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News Deputy Managing Editor Steve Wright, speaking 10 days after the comic ran in his paper.

"I expected to get some reaction, but didn't get any," added Karen Hunter, reader representative at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

"We had very little reaction," said Margaret Sullivan, vice president and editor of The Buffalo (N.Y.) News. "There were, at most, a handful of phone calls."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch received about 35 phone calls and e-mails criticizing the Sept. 7 comic, according to Susan Hegger, assistant managing editor for features. "It wasn't an overwhelming outcry," she said. "I was expecting a lot more" -- partly because the strip had been covered on TV and radio. In comparison, recalled Hegger, about 800 readers complained when the Post-Dispatch tried to drop the "Mark Trail" comic.

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel received more than a dozen reader reactions, with the majority critical of the comic. "It wasn't an awful lot of response," said Public Editor Manning Pynn. "It's more than I hear on an average controversial item. But if something was really controversial, I'd get more than that."

So why weren't more people angry in various newspaper markets? One reason might be that readers aren't bothered as much as some cautious newspaper editors think by candid language in comics.

Also, Sullivan felt the comic wasn't that controversial. "To be honest, it wasn't a terribly close call for me," she said. "I didn't think it was something that would offend a lot of readers -- and it didn't."

The Sept. 7 comic -- by Garry Trudeau of Universal Press Syndicate -- showed Rev. Sloan reading a newspaper article about a (true-life) study saying regular masturbation might help prevent prostate cancer. Boopsie responded that talk about sex makes her uncomfortable. "You're dating yourself," said Sloan. To which Zonker added: "Hey, did you hear self-dating prevents cancer?"

Other possible explanations for the muted reaction? Hunter said it might have helped that the Courant warned readers about the Sept. 7 strip in a late-August story. "Because we told them the cartoon was coming and that we would run it, they already knew what the paper felt about it," she said. Five or 10 readers did complain about the Courant's decision to publish the then-upcoming comic after seeing the article.

Hunter said she also wrote about the comic in her Sept. 7 column, so readers might have felt the issue was "already addressed" by the newspaper.

Hegger said the longevity of the 1970-founded "Doonesbury" could also be a reason for the small number of complaints. "It has been in the newspaper so long that if people know they'll get riled up by it, they don't read it," she said.

Sullivan did observe that reaction to potentially controversial comics can vary by locale. "Community standards are different in different places," she said. "Editors have a good feel for what their readership will find unacceptable."

Wright added: "Each newspaper needs to judge its own market. You've got to know what your readers can handle. As we predicted, our readership was sophisticated enough to handle the word and handle how it was put in context."

Before the comic appeared, Trudeau stated: "The strip isn't really about masturbation or the prostate cancer study as such, but about the shifting nature of taboos and the inability of two adults to have a certain kind of serious conversation."

The cartoonist added: "It's a South Park world now, and younger readers are unlikely to be shocked or confused by anything they find in 'Doonesbury.'"

Indeed, many newspapers discuss sex and other potentially controversial topics in their non-comics pages. But there's still a feeling among some editors that comics sections should be "family-friendly" because they're seen as having more kid readers than most other parts of the paper. Even so, an increasing number of strips have dealt with societal issues in recent years.

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Et cetera ...

Tribune Media Services announced Sept. 16 that it was immediately offering high-resolution 3D graphics of Hurricane Isabel to client and non-client papers free of charge. TMS works with Weather Central.

Mike Ritter was elected president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Ritter, of the Tribune Newspapers in Arizona and King Features Syndicate, succeeds Bruce Plante of the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press. Other 2003-04 officers include President-Elect Matt Davies of The Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., and TMS; Vice President Clay Bennett of The Christian Science Monitor and Christian Science Monitor News Service; and Secretary-Treasurer V. Cullum Rogers of The Independent Weekly in Durham, N.C.

More than 40,000 readers responded to an "Annie's Mailbox" survey about whether they divorced or forgave a cheating spouse. About 50% chose divorce and didn't regret it. About 40% forgave, with that group evenly split between those who were happy they did, those still unsure if they made the right decision, and those who were "sorry they gave the rat a second chance." The "Annie's Mailbox" advice column is by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar of Creators Syndicate.

Starting Oct. 6, Howie Schneider is doing a new comic for United Feature Syndicate called "The Sunshine Club -- Life in Generation Rx." Schneider is the creator of the "Eek and Meek" comic, editorial cartoonist for the Provincetown (Mass.) Banner, a magazine cartoonist, a children's book author, and a sculptor.

Jack Prahl was named assistant vice president of Universal Press Syndicate. Prahl has been Universal's sales manager of the Southeast region for 10 years, and has 25 years of total syndicate sales experience. He will continue to sell features in the southern U.S. while taking a more active role in developing new features.

Tribune Media Services International named Ryan Stephens to the newly created position of international sales director. The Los Angeles-based Stephens most recently served as director/Latin America and Canada.

Andrews McMeel Publishing released three comic collections: Who's Up for Some Bonding? by "FoxTrot" creator Bill Amend of Universal Press Syndicate, Rose is Rose Right on the Lips by Pat Brady of United, and The Shark Diaries by "Sherman's Lagoon" creator Jim Toomey of King.

An exhibit of editorial cartoons by Jim Borgman and Jeff Stahler is being held through Oct. 12 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Borgman is with The Cincinnati Enquirer and King, while Stahler is with The Cincinnati Post and Newspaper Enterprise Association.

Steve Campbell and Louis Dunn are collaborating on an animated political cartoon called "Forever Dada" (http://www.foreverdada.com).

Houston Chronicle Associate Editor Susan Bischoff was named the 16th member of the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors Hall of Fame at the AASFE convention Sept. 17 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Among the finalists were "Garfield" creator Jim Davis of Universal and columnist Dave Barry of The Miami Herald and TMS. Bischoff is a former AASFE president who has also been involved with other journalism groups and various Houston-area civic organizations.