Go, Read: Rob Tornoe On The State Of Syndicated Cartooning

Rob Tornoe's pieces for newspaper industry bible Editor & Publisher are always full of legitimately hard-won detail, and that's certainly true of this latest on the state of syndication as it relates to the sale and dissemination of comics through serially published outlets like newspapers. Not only does Tornoe wrest from King Features how many folks are subscribing to their DailyINK enterprise (approximately 11,000), he notes that they actually use a variety of strategies including the sale of a big package of strips to run through newspaper sites directly. I always thought that the advantages to newspaper cartoon-content providers eschewing a firm investment in one strategy over another would be avoiding the downside of a full commitment in one direction (such as free content potentially sabotaging a chance for limited-edition work sold to a tiny, intense fanbase) and giving them a chance to latch onto something that presented itself as a workable solution if that happened. What this article suggests is that there's a third advantage in simply presenting a variety of solutions that benefit different entities in a number of ways. Sounds smart to me.

A potential jaw-dropper here is confirmation that no one is launching new material. This wasn't a secret, but it's stunning to kind of take into full account. It seems like a basic market readjustment. The sole 2013 launch, King Features' Take It From The Tinkersons, is already at a potentially profitable 75 clients; Dustin, a little over three years old, has reached 300. Tornoe notes something that never occurred to me: that the United/Universal merger may have doomed new strip launches because the combined company suddenly had twice the material to sell. Not only is a massively reduced slate of new strips a key business move, but it also has an effect on content. When you're launching multiple strips in a year, it seems logical that a few stabs in the dark can be attempted. One launch every 18 months, that isn't as likely. You're also able to better develop the material you have before syndication; I don't think in-house development has been a natural strength of syndicates in the last 25 years. While comic strips and editorial cartoon markets have changed in massive fashion the last few years, syndication does still provide a lot of folks with careers making comics, and should never be ignored simply because it's several decades removed from its golden age.
 
posted 12:20 am PST | Permalink
 

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