Showing posts with label the incredible shrinking newspaper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the incredible shrinking newspaper. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

OT: Beyond the... Comics

Some papers are experimenting this week with a syndicated animated cartoon - Beyond the... Comics including the Tri-City Herald. I haven't had a chance to watch them yet, but I don't see why this syndication model can't work.

There's not much on the Herald site - just these two sentences -

Comics: Something old, something new
By Ken Robertson, Herald Executive Editor

A tidbit of comics history arrived in this morning’s mail just as the Herald website debuted something that may become a part of comics future — a weeklong series of animated comics.

They’re appearing for one week only on the Herald website and the websites of the San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Idaho Statesman, Monterey Herald, Houston Chronicle and SeattlePI.com.

Monday, November 30, 2009

'Improved' Express cuts most comics UPDATED

The Washington Post's free Express paper was improved over the holiday and that means they cut 3 of the 5 comic strips they ran. Out are Bizarro by Dan Piraro, Cornered by Mike Baldwin, and The Duplex by Glenn McCoy. Remaining are Pearls Before Swine (which also appears in the Post) and Pooch Cafe, now in color.

Should you wish to question this improvement, you can write to inbox@readexpress.com

I will be doing so in a few minutes.

UPDATE: The editor wrote back to me to say, "We might feature fewer comics in our print edition now, but we've added an expanded comics section in an easy-access, newspaper-style format at our Web site, ExpressNightOut.com. You'll find Bizarro, Cornered and The Duplex there every day - plus a slew of new comics to make a visit worth your time. Those include Lio, Non Sequitur, The Argyle Sweater, Bound and Gagged, Candorville, Cul de Sac and the New Adventures of Queen Victoria. You can find them here: http://www.expressnightout.com/comics."

While I obviously don't agree with him, I appreciate the fact that he took the time to respond. I've just sent him a response which includes, "We'll have to agree to disagree though because if it's a commuting newspaper, then putting the comics online doesn't really help anyone except those with overly-smart phones. Besides the Post does that already. In the end, I just don't see providing less of something as a way to bring in more readers."