Another Cartoonist Loses Staff Position



According to this post at Alan Gardner's Daily Cartoonist, Steve Greenberg has been laid off from the Ventura County Star effective November 30. Editorial cartooning was a second duty for Greenberg, who plans to continue on the Cagle site and with syndication. In part because he had more than one responsibility at the paper, the layoff seems to have come as a surprise.

As the comments thread at DC makes clear, this isn't a case of dire and necessary cuts but instead looks more like simple pruning and improving the bottom line. One of the distinct features of this current newspaper business free-fall is that it's not falling from a position where papers were expected to make money in some years, not make money in others and the years of profitability would sustain the publications during the down times. I remember talking to an old newspaper man who used to own a few papers and he would stress that all he wanted to do is pay the bills. Corporate-owned papers, on the other hand, are not only expected to make a profit they're expected to do so every year. That's a much tougher standard under which a cartoonist has to justify his or her necessity.
 
posted 7:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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