Newspaper Swaps 'Mutts' for 'Zits'

By: E&P Staff In a novel bid to attract younger readers, the Plattsburgh (NY) Press-Republican announced last weekend that it would replace the comic strip "Mutts" with the teenage-oriented comic "Zits."

"Like every other media outlet in America, we would like to interest a new generation of potential readers," went an editorial in the paper published June 27. "Capturing the electronic devotees in the 15-to-30 age group is difficult to fulfill but a passionate desire of all newspapers.

"Thus, we're canceling 'Mutts' as of this Monday [June 29] and replacing it with the acclaimed 'Zits,' in which artists Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman humorously and empathetically explore relationships between teenagers and their parents," the paper continued.

"Mutts," the King Features comic about the daily lives of a dog named Earl and a cat named Mooch, was chosen to replace "For Better or For Worse," which was dropped by the paper in February. "Zits," which is also distributed by King, follows 15-year-old Jeremy Duncan as he goes through adolescence with his peers, and struggles to relate to his parents.

Both "For Better and For Worse" and "Zits" will continue to run in the paper's Sunday editions.