Sunday, May 10, 2009

Tribune Co. Cartoonists Hope Their Local Focus Ensures Job Security

Tribune Co. Cartoonists Hope Their Local Focus Ensures Job Security
By Dave Astor
Publication: Editor & Publisher
Date: Wednesday, December 7 2005
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They undoubtedly have some job-security fears, but editorial cartoonists who survived cutbacks at Tribune Co. papers hope their local commentary will be among the things that keep them employed.

E&P Online called several of these survivors Wednesday to see how
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they're doing now that other Tribune Co. cartoonists -- including Michael Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times and Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher of The Sun in Baltimore -- are losing their jobs.

"I was offered a buyout two of three weeks ago, but I didn't take it," said Bob Englehart of The Hartford (Conn.) Courant. "I have no intention of leaving any time soon."

Englehart, who will mark his 25th anniversary at the paper on Dec. 15, said he feels his job is safe for the foreseeable future. And he's trying to keep it that way by continuing to devote about half of his cartoons to Hartford and Connecticut topics.

"The only insurance an editorial cartoonist has -- if he or she has any insurance at all -- is to focus on local issues," said Englehart. "Newspapers can buy national cartoons from syndicates, and get Pulitzer Prize winners by the pound."


Englehart, who's syndicated by Cagle Cartoons, said his non-local commentary has little impact on things like the Iraq War and the price of oil. "But I can make the mayor or the governor look like an idiot," he added, noting that his cartoons may have contributed at least somewhat to last year's resignation of Connecticut Gov. John Rowland amidst corruption charges.

Of course, doing a lot of local commentary doesn't guarantee that a cartoonist's job will last. Kallaugher often commented on Baltimore and Maryland issues.

Another Tribune Co. cartoonist, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel's Dana Summers, said of his job: "I've been told I'm OK." And Summers, who joined the Sentinel in 1982, also emphasized the importance of local commentary.

"I'm trying to do more local stuff," he said. "I'm trying to make myself as valuable as I can. Last year, I went to the Super Bowl for sports. If I can do any extra things, I do them."

Summers, whose editorial cartoons are syndicated by Tribune Media Services, has also done the "Bound & Gagged" comic and co-authored "The Middletons" strip for TMS for a number of years. He said those two features provide "a little bit of a safety net" if the Sentinel editorial cartoonist job ever disappears, but added that losing a full-time salary and benefits would be difficult.

While the Tribune Co. has been in the news lately for shedding cartoon jobs, Summers noted that non-Tribune Co. papers have also eliminated cartoon positions in recent years. "It's all over the place," he said, citing figures indicating that staff jobs have dropped from more than 200 to less than 90 in the U.S. "That's really frightening."

Walt Handelsman of the Tribune Co.-owned Newsday in Melville, N.Y., and TMS mentioned the local connection as well. He said "my cartoons about Long Island and New York City generate a lot of reaction," and that "the outreach I do in the community" -- including talking at schools -- helps brings new readers to the paper.

"Cartoonists, like local columnists, add a personality to a newspaper that's unattainable by buying syndicated work," said the 1997 Pulitzer winner, who joined Newsday in 2001.

Another Tribune Co. cartoonist, Chan Lowe of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and TMS, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.



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