South Dakota Paper Is Expanding Its Comics Lineup

By: E&P Staff With many newspapers shrinking their comics offerings, a South Dakota daily is one of a small number expanding its "funnies."

Managing Editor Kelly Hertz said the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan will add two strips after a testing period. For four weeks starting today, the paper is sampling six strips while soliciting reader opinion about those strips and about comics that have been running in its pages for years.

The comics being tested include "Baby Blues," "Bizarro," "Mother Goose and Grimm," "Mutts," "The Pajama Diaries," and "Pardon My Planet." All are with King Features Syndicate.

Hertz said the paper's goal is to attract more younger readers while retaining the readers who like its current comics lineup.