The National Newspaper Association asked a few cartoonists to draw a cartoon for National Newspaper Week, which is this week, and I’m honored to be one of them. Technically, the Arkansas Press Association is in charge of the campaign this year and its executive director, Ashley Kemp Wimberly was gracious enough to ask me to participate, so props to her.

Also, Ms. Wimberly didn’t hassle me over my idea when I sent her the rough and didn’t even quibble about Pizza Rat sneaking in, so this was a fun task.

I’m always willing to promote newspapers even though those in charge of the industry are trying their best to kill it. I was laid off and then venture capitalists purchased my former paper, gutted it, sold it to another venture capitalist who gutted it even further, who then sold it to another venture capitalist who may still be the one gutting it today. I’m not sure as I’ve lost track of how many vulture companies have owned my former newspaper. The corporations that own newspapers today don’t care about newspapers except for what they can bleed them for.

I’m having a hard time picking up new clients as most newspapers are parts of major corporate chains and those that still run cartoons won’t let the local editors choose them anymore. Did I say, Those that still run cartoons?” Gannett and McClatchy, two of the largest newspaper chains have decided not to run cartoons anymore. Did I mention that McClatchy named me as one of its debtors during its bankruptcy restructuring? I kept receiving updates throughout the bankruptcy until I eventually received one stating I would not be getting paid because I never submitted an invoice, which was a lie. F–ers. I never did except to see that money because, you know, newspapers.

A lot of clients I’ve had over the years have dropped me because of corporate “restructuring,” when a paper cuts its entire opinion page, or anytime a new editor, publisher, or owner takes over,. A few of the publications I’ve lost over the past few years include The Dallas Morning News, Rock Hill (SC) Herald, Newport (VT) Daily Express, Watertown (SD) Public Opinion, Boulder Weekly, Tucson Weekly, Roanoke Times, Evansville Courier and Press, Daily Astorian (OR), Colorado Springs Gazette, San Jose Mercury News, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hanford Sentinel, New York Observer, Lansing City Pulse, Pacific Daily News (Guam), Longview (TX) News Journal, The Miami Times, St. George (UT) Independent, The Seattle Times, and many others.

I left a major syndicate, Creators, to self-syndicate after I was laid off over a decade ago. When newspapers would drop me, they’d usually inform me first. Now, it seems the thing to do is to just stop paying me. I have a few clients who I’m not sure if they’re still clients. There are many newspapers that still have a standing debt with me. The Costa Rica Star, who I freelanced for, owes me over $2,500. I even had one client give me the old check-is-in-the-mail bit to later change their story to some other b.s. and got away with using my cartoons for over a year without paying a dime. There used to be a little more integrity in this business.

And yet, I still love this industry. I still love newspapers…what’s left of them.

I think reporters today are the best we’ve ever had and did an amazing job during the b.s. of the Trump era, which we’re still in. We cartoonists stand on their shoulders. They gather the news that we work off of, except for the MAGA cartoonists because those guys and gals just make things up. Journalists need to get paid.

Newspapers cut their own throats by giving their content away for free back in the late 90s when they discovered the internet. They didn’t realize that people who subscribed and paid for their papers would stop. But the real death knell was Craigslist a few years later. Have you heard the trope about putting toothpaste back into the tube? Yeah, you can buy it on Craigslist. But I still blame Napster for starting the trend of people expecting everything on the internet to be for free whether it’s music, movies, news, porn, or cartoons. I lost you at porn, didn’t I? SNAP! SNAP! Wake up.

I don’t expect you to have a dozen subscriptions to news outlets, but if you are a heavy news reader or like to talk politics on the internet, then you should at least have one. Not that I’m better than anyone else, but I currently have at least five, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The New York Daily News, and the Times of London. I probably forgot one. Some of these are extremely cheap. You can find a cheap one. Help newspapers survive. I challenge you.

By the way, there are political cartoonists on Patreon and other sites selling access to their cartoons, blogs, roughs, and videos. Please take note that I’m not charging for any of that stuff, at least not yet. Maybe I’m stupid but I’ve been giving it away for free. Don’t thank me. Thank the few contributors I have who’ve been carrying your dead weight. I kid! I kid! But you really should thank them.

Or at the very least, stop whining about paywalls.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Cartoons, Clay Jones, claytoonz, Editorial cartoons, Journalism, National Newspaper Week, Newspapers, Political Cartoons on October 2, 2023. 3 Comments
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