The vanishing newspaper cartoonist

He will be very difficult to replace, but we’ll try. Our discussion on what’s next has just begun. We don’t know yet what form it will eventually take, but we still believe in print here; we publish seven days a week. And we know many of our subscribers enjoy this kind of commentary even when they disagree with the cartoon some days.”

Rene Sanchez, editor and vice president of news for The Times-Picayune, the Advocate and NOLA.com

In 1987, Walt Handelsman sat in the Rose Garden of the White House alongside other cartoonists as their frequent target — then-President Ronald Reagan — spoke about the importance of their profession.

“Cartoons show American politics from a special angle — irony, wit, satire, outrage, as well as occasionally sympathy and affection,” Reagan said. “Your humor helps give America’s political dialogue its characteristic humanity. And in doing that, you keep us here in Washington from taking ourselves too seriously, and I can’t think of any greater service to our national sanity than that.”

Man, how things have changed over the past four decades.

Handelsman, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, has witnessed it all. But after covering six different presidents and drawing cartoons featuring an uncountable number of local politicians, he retired his pen and walked away from a profession that had changed dramatically over the span of his long career.

“I am optimistic about satire,” Handelsman said. “The real question is, how do you make a professional living doing it. There are a lot of young, talented people out there, but it's hard to find a newspaper to pay your salary and benefits, which is what it was like when I started back in the 1980s.”

When Handelsman sat at the White House that day listening to Reagan, there were over 300 cartoonists on staff at newspapers across the country. By my count, that number now totals less than 20, with the rest scrambling to produce cartoons as freelancers or abandoning the field altogether.

Walt Handelsman, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, has covered six different presidents and many local politicians with his cartoons.

It’s not that cartoons are any less popular. Social media has become an ever-growing platform for humor and political thought, but news organizations have found it challenging to convert that engagement into revenue. Changes by tech companies — X’s restrictive new terms of service, Google’s chokehold on search traffic and ad dollars, AI-powered tools that steal content and present it as their own — have forced news organizations to adapt and reinvent the content they produce.

Sadly, that often means moving on from once-beloved newspaper roles, such as editorial cartoonists, movie and TV critics, and city columnists, to name a few. Some newspapers have even done away with their op-ed sections altogether, and larger outlets like The New York Times and USA TODAY have shed once-popular cartoon roundups important to the industry after minor brushes with controversy.

Even at The Times-Picayune, which has thrived under local ownership and still publishes seven days a week to a print-devoted audience in New Orleans, it's unclear if Handlesman’s role as a local cartoonist will be filled. But at least there’s some hope the paper could buck the industry’s sad trends.

“He will be very difficult to replace, but we’ll try,” said Rene Sanchez, editor and vice president of news for The Times-Picayune, the Advocate and NOLA.com. “Our discussion on what’s next has just begun. We don’t know yet what form it will eventually take, but we still believe in print here; we publish seven days a week. And we know many of our subscribers enjoy this kind of commentary even when they disagree with the cartoon some days.”

Handelsman spoke to Editor & Publisher about his decision to walk away from drawing political cartoons, the state of the industry and the future of political satire. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

E&P: As someone who would live and die on the daily news cycle, what’s it been like not immediately running to the drawing table to fire off a cartoon?

WH: It’s hard for me not to come up with ideas just by reading the news. That's the way my brain is trained. For the first few weeks, I made notes because I've been making notes for years. I’ve stopped doing that now.

But to answer your question, it’s been okay. I am way more relaxed now. … I do miss the engagement with readers, but I feel good about how this has started.

E&P: You’re one of the few staff cartoonists who’s been able to walk away on your own terms. What are your thoughts about the industry?

WH: Well, I stand with everyone else in being very disappointed this has happened. I think it’s a mistake. I know that readers like cartoons, and that cartoons are an important voice.

I just think you can say more in a cartoon, and there are just a handful of papers willing to say the kinds of things cartoonists can say. It’s a shame more newspapers aren’t running cartoons and don’t have a cartoonist, considering all the advantages of having a local cartoonist on staff.

E&P: In addition to shedding cartoonists, many newspapers have also pulled back on columnists and gotten rid of their op-ed sections altogether.

WH: I’ve been fortunate to work for papers with a strong voice, and they’re not afraid to have a cartoonist and to say tough things.

I do think the business model has obviously struggled, and when you look around at the Gannetts of the world [now rebranded as USA TODAY Co.] and other newspaper chains, they don’t really want to anger their readers with strong, hard-hitting cartoons and opinion content daily. What other explanation could there be? Because I know cartoons are popular with readers.

E&P: As newspapers continue to shift from print to digital, what did you discover during your career about being a cartoonist online?

WH: Let me be clear. This is a seven-day-a-week successful print operation. My cartoons were in the paper every day. We have an online presence that’s growing quite nicely … but for the past 12 to 13 years, I have been a print cartoonist whose work also runs on a vibrant and growing website.

I don’t know how to explain how to be successful and have a successful career if you’re drawing strictly online, because I’ve never really done that.

E&P: Which is funny, because you were an early innovator, doing animations for Newsday and later for The Times-Picayune.

WH: The animation came about in 2006 because I noticed the industry was imploding, particularly for cartoonists. You were having Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists losing their jobs.

I was really shocked. I have two children who were in high school, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to make sure this job remains vibrant.’ So, I sat around and worked on these flash animations at night. I barely slept for years. It was crazy.

E&P: What cartoon had the biggest local reaction?

WH: I drew a series of cartoons I was very proud of in the 1990s about [white supremacist] David Duke. Before I was here, Duke won a seat in the Louisiana legislature and then ran for governor and U.S. Senate.

I think in a month, I probably did 15 or 16 cartoons about that. I couldn’t believe it. And then he ended up getting half a million votes, which was appalling. But I felt like I did some of my best and most powerful work. I wouldn’t say popular — they were popular with some people, and they were very unpopular with a lot of people.

I wasn’t here for Katrina; I was still working at Newsday. But the cartoons I drew about rebuilding Louisiana and Hurricane Ida got a lot of reaction.

E&P: In addition to drawing about politics, you also drew your fair share of sports cartoons.

WH: I’ve always believed there should be a rhythm to cartooning when you work for a daily newspaper. I want to connect with readers, and I live in a city where the Saints are so popular when they’re doing well, and such a part of being here.

Local cartoons hit home with readers in a local area. That’s one of the great things about having a local cartoonist. I live here. We’ve gone through this together, whether it’s flooding in the streets, the power going off, the potholes, local politics or sports. These are all ways you can connect with readers.

In terms of online reaction, one of my most popular cartoons was about the Saints. The team was not doing well, and the Pope was coming to visit the United States. So I had the Pope in an airplane with a guy saying, “We’re making a special trip in New Orleans to help some Saints.” It was extremely popular.

E&P: What do you think of the current state of editorial cartooning and its future?

WH: I am confident there will be political satire as long as politicians keep doing absurd things. Obviously, we’re in a major transition, both politically and in the way news is disseminated, and we’ll have to see how it plays out.

I can state unequivocally that cartoons are popular. Every cartoonist knows this. We know the reactions we get when we go places. I honestly never thought this would happen in my lifetime, but it’s the technology and just the way things are. But I’m confident there will be satire in many forms moving forward.

Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor and Publisher, where he writes about trends in digital media. He is also a digital editor and writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. You can reach him at robtornoe@gmail.com.