Dan Perkins, better known as Tom Tomorrow, has been creating the popular This Modern World comic strip for over two decades. For much of that time his publishing “homebase” was Salon.com, but as its comic section dwindled, he began “quietly looking around for alternatives” in 2010. “I had exploratory conversations with many of the big political sites,” says Perkins, “and couldn’t seem to interest anyone.”
That changed this past April when Markos Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, hired Perkins to edit the site’s new political cartoon page. Perkins has used this opportunity to implement some standards he’s felt lacking elsewhere, like paying cartoonists (“that was an important precedent to establish”) and offering year-long contracts to the nine contributors they’ve signed so far (“I think artists deserve regular followings”). Moulitsas wrote in an e-mail that some of the “biggest social media shares at the site have been cartoons,” and an embeddable widget is in the works so other sites can highlight the Daily Kos cartoons. Perkins says they hope the widget will encourage people to “do the right thing,” i.e. “post with attribution and a link back to the source.”
Cartoons pass quickly around the web. Most cartoonists I spoke with said they’ve never had so many people viewing their work. But popularity doesn’t necessarily pay. Traditionally, cartoonists have had two main paths to solvency: staff jobs—which have been on the verge of extinction for years—and syndication. Syndication companies sell the rights to an artist’s work to publishers in a variety of ways. Individual artists are sometimes offered a la carte (which is most lucrative for the cartoonist), or as part of a package deal that includes the work of many artists. In recent years, individual artists are increasingly being bundled into packages at a discount rate. Using syndication packages and bundles, publishers can have a buffet of cartoons to choose from.
Syndication remains the way most newspapers, their accompanying websites, and other online news outlets obtain cartoon content. But the pay for the artists is decreasing, as found in a recent report from the Herb Block Foundation, entitled, “The Golden Age for Editorial Cartoonists at the Nation’s Newspapers is Over”:
To help maintain their revenue stream, some syndicates are adding new cartoonists to an existing package of editorial cartoonists without increasing the cost of the overall package. For example, a syndicate offering a package of 10 cartoonists may now offer a package of 11 cartoonists without increasing the cost to the subscriber. But to keep its own revenue base, the syndicate will reduce its payments to all the other cartoonists in the package.
Couple that with fewer newspaper clients, and it’s a significant pay cut. Cartoonist Ted Rall, who’s done freelance work for the Columbia Journalism Review, is syndicated through Universal Press Syndicate, and says each time one of his cartoons is run in a newspaper he earns, on average, about $3.50. But he’s down from about 140 newspapers at his peak, to 45. “Now, I earn 16 percent of what I earned from syndication 12 years ago, when I was less well known,” says Rall. And while some online sites have become new customers for syndicates, the new business doesn’t make up for that which was lost. Rall says his work has run in Slate, which he describes as a “great place to be,” but one month he calculated what he made from their purchase of his work for a roundup, and discovered “I made 8 cents from one of those cartoons.” He explains: “They get it through the syndicate, and it’s sold through part of the package, and the syndicate pays the artists a laughably low percentage of the laughably low rate.”
The Herb Block Report asked members of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists a survey question about syndication; more than half of the respondents reported earning income from syndication, and while 18 percent said they earn more than half their income through syndication, more than a third of the respondents said they earned less than 20 percent of their living from this type of work.
I founded and run the Cartoonist Group and we work with 50 leading cartoonists, including eight winners of the Pulitzer Prize. We also have a subsidiary site devoted exclusively to editorial cartoons. We are fortunate to work with Amy Lago and her colleagues at the Writers Group and with other leading syndicates. The comments below pertain to digital media — not to newspapers as this is one of the syndicates' areas of expertise, not ours. Additionally, we are speaking only for ourselves — not for the cartoonists or syndicates with which we work.
The report of the Herb Block Foundation arrives at an opportune time, when the initial strategies for cartoonists to adapt to the web have been proven to be unproductive — if not detrimental — and when the next strategies are not yet completely clear. As the report also suggests, as newspaper revenue for cartoonists declines, revenue from alternative sources will be increasingly important in cartoonists' ability to make a living from cartooning.
In this time of uncertainty, two things are evident:
1. It makes no sense to compete primarily on price in the growing digital market. Furthermore, the strategy pursued by some cartoonists of trading exposure for profits in merchandise may work for a limited number of cartoonists but it is not a viable strategy for the majority of cartoonists.
2. Cartoonists who participate in this race to the bottom in the pricing for digital media are working against their own self-interest — and they are dragging all other cartoonists there with them.
Of course, most cartoonists don't sell their own work. Others do. So, there needs to be a meeting of minds on pricing — and an understanding of its importance. Editors should be a part of this discussion.
The sad truth is that at a time when society is becoming increasingly visual, one of the most effective tools for grabbing readers' and users' attention is under duress — some of its own making. We are at a point when the long-term implications of this have been masked because there are so many good cartoonists still working — sometimes by becoming entrepreneurial as Dan Perkins' efforts indicate.
It may be hyperbolic to suggest that editorial cartoons will disappear — but it is clear that the current path is unsustainable for a large number of cartoonists. To change the path will require a large number of cartoonists, marketers, and content purchasers to value cartoons in the best sense of the word.
#1 Posted by Sara Thaves, CJR on Thu 16 Feb 2012 at 02:21 PM
Good to read a long piece on editorial cartooning in the CJR. You might be interested in this post of mine, titled .'Daryl Cagle and the Survival of Cartoon Journalism", published on The Comics Grid.
#2 Posted by Ernesto Priego, CJR on Thu 16 Feb 2012 at 04:05 PM
Not a big fan or Rall or Perkins (which is fine, to each his own), but I sympathize with their plight. Cartoonists are the canary in the coal mine and everyone else (journos, papers) is already choking to death.
One thing for sure - the solution has to be led by the cartoonists themselves. Nobody else is going to solve this for them.
Kudos to Alysia Santo for focusing on this, and good luck to everyone in figuring it all out.
#3 Posted by JLD, CJR on Mon 20 Feb 2012 at 06:50 AM
A while ago the Sunday New York Times stopped carrying its "best political cartoons of the week" feature. I always assumed it was a cost-cutting move, though I can't believe they had to pay much for day-old cartoons. Now they have a fairly inept strip, presumably at considerable savings.
Anybody with any inside knowledge of these developments?
#4 Posted by anotherbozo, CJR on Mon 20 Feb 2012 at 11:22 AM
"One thing for sure - the solution has to be led by the cartoonists themselves. Nobody else is going to solve this for them."
I agree in one way but cartoonists are not the one's a power or even in a position to have control. If it were they could demand higher rates. Sadly they can not.
Editorial illustration is suffering the same fate. MAny times illustrators are asked to work for a very very low fee. When they bring up that they can not work for that price art directors look for a cheaper one. Sad.
#5 Posted by tjmourke, CJR on Fri 24 Feb 2012 at 04:57 PM