Cartoonist Dan Rosandich wrote an article called “Cartoonist cost cutting.” I thought it had to do with the supplies. He was writing about the disappearance of paid staff political cartoonists by newspapers and he blames the internet, which of course decimated the whole newspaper business, not just cartoonists.
But in many cases, the internet has allowed many more cartoonsits to flurish and work for themselves and be seen by many more people who might not have seen their work.
Also, regarding art supplies, I don’t remember the last time I was at an art supply store since I do everything digital now. I don’t even remember the last time I bought a pencil!
Dan has a couple of more articles regarding the way the world wide web has affected cartoonist. He is not a happy camper. But the internet has changed so many professions. I think along with newspapers, retail has to be the biggest, Amazon is taking over the world. Even supermarkets are closing because people shop for food online now!
Disagree. The Internet is taking the blame for the effect of massive leveraged purchases of newspapers by stock swappers, who proceeded — as they do in every industry they target — to focus on stock value rather than street value, and to redirect profits to paying off the cost of acquisition and position the hedge fund for future takeovers. Certainly, newspapers could have responded more intelligently to Craig’s List and other assaults on their core business, but they were constrained by distant corporate owners who turned small, maneuverable local enterprises into clumsy tankers piloted by people who had no knowledge of how newspapers work.
At roughly the same time, a rogue “syndicate” was set up offering newspapers cartoons at roughly a quarter of what the established syndicates charged, siphoning away the small papers who had provided editorial cartoonists with a decent income — and ultimately begging for donations because the business model was not sustainable.
The Internet made this easier, but blind Wall Street greed made it happen.
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