Not So Funny   

Several major newspapers are leaving their editorial cartoonist positions vacant. Are these civic needlers an endangered species?

Years before cancer cut short his life, editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly described his professional purpose to an interviewer. "You're making fun of things. You're never saying anything nice or supportive," he said. "I have a sense of humor about these things. I look at people, and I like to laugh at them."

An understatement if one was ever uttered. MacNelly was the consummate needler, poking fun at his subjects with a pointed pen but pulling more than laughs from his readers. Like all good cartoonists, he could incite anger, prompt tears and promote change with a small drawing that many people could take in within 10 seconds. When the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner died in June 2000, the Chicago Tribune remembered its cartoonist in an editorial titled "The Enduring Craft of Jeff MacNelly." "We will miss Jeff MacNelly," it read. "We will miss his craft."

But it is a craft that, some fear, is dying. More than two years after MacNelly's death, his post at the Tribune remains unfilled and management has not explained the delay. It's perhaps the most high-profile open position in the cartooning world, but definitely not the only one. Editors at the San Jose Mercury News and the Buffalo News say they haven't replaced their cartoonists because of financial concerns. New Jersey's Asbury Park Press hasn't filled an editorial cartooning post that has been vacant for more than a year. New York's Daily News has eliminated its previously vacant position due to downsizing, according to the human resources department. And some cartoonists decry the "Newsweekization" of their field--a tendency for cartoons to be uniform as artists aim for reprints, not reader response.

Editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette of the Tallahassee Democrat says editors are devaluing the cartoon, a sign that journalism is heading down the wrong path. "Cartoonists are the instincts of journalism. We're the canaries in the coal mine, and when we're keeling over and dying, that is the instincts of journalism," says Marlette, whose article "Editorial Cartoonists: An Endangered Species?" was published in Media Studies Journal five years ago. "To editors, cartoons are extra. All art is. There's no reason you have to have cave paintings. You have to kill the dinosaur, you have to have fire, but you don't have to have cave paintings."

Paul Conrad, who draws for the Los Angeles Times, says one of the problems with editorial cartooning today is that it's too safe. Many artists, he says, have dulled their razor-sharp wit to avoid conflict. "I don't see a great deal in editorial cartooning today, and neither do the editors," Conrad says. "Damn few of them want cartoons that say something that should be said, politically, that is. As long as that continues, cartoonists are going to be in bad shape, but not as bad shape as the publishers and owners of the newspapers will be in when the people realize they're not reading anything."

But the profession is thriving in other ways. The Washington Post and New Orleans' Times-Picayune recently have hired cartoonists. Marlette's own newspaper never had its own cartoonist before hiring him in July, a move that he says "goes against the grain" (see Bylines, September). And many cartoonists believe the field is alive and well, with young artists taking up a craft already filled with talented journalists.

Bruce Plante, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and cartoonist for the Chattanooga Times' editorial page at the combined Times Free Press, says the fatalists should step back and look at what else is going on in the newspaper industry before declaring cartooning dead. On the whole, there are fewer papers these days, in the hands of fewer owners. And those owners are responding to slumping profits and the economic downturn with temporary and permanent cost-cutting measures, he says. Those are some reasons why there are fewer staff cartoonists today than 20 years ago and cartooning jobs are unfilled.

"It's not a dying art. It's not a dying profession," says Plante. "We're seen by more people now than we ever have been. A cartoon that used to be seen only in Chattanooga is now seen around the world. I think it's an art that's more popular than ever before, and we have to remind the publishers out there that hey, we're here."

Jack Ohman of Portland's Oregonian agrees that the profession, while embattled, is still viable. "I don't think political cartooning is dead," Ohman says. "There are a hundred-something political cartoonists, and they're all getting salaries. I think the popular thing to say is political cartooning has been hurt by them not filling these jobs--and I'd certainly say it hasn't been helped--but there are still a lot of cartoonists out there who are doing well financially, and they all have dental plans. And they do good, interesting work."

Most credit Ben Franklin with the country's first editorial cartoon, a sketch of a snake cut into several pieces, each representing one of the Colonies. The drawing is labeled "Join, or Die." In the 1870s, Thomas Nast--the cartoonist who brought us the modern-day image of Santa Claus and gave the nation's two major political parties their animal mascots--so gnawed New York City's corrupt government that its leader, William "Boss" Tweed, allegedly offered Nast money to stop drawing. "I don't care so much what the papers write about me--my constituents can't read," Tweed reportedly said to his lackeys. "But damn it, they can see pictures. Let's stop them damn pictures."

A century later, an editorial cartoon by Bill Mauldin portraying a sobbing statue of Abraham Lincoln summed up the nation's feelings about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. After the September 11 attacks, America's editorial cartoonists responded to the challenge to be funny, respectful and critical, sometimes all in one drawing (see "Maybe Not," May). People clipped their work from newspapers and pressed it between book pages to save for unborn generations.

And through it all, cartoonists prepared for the end. In 1957, an article titled "The Decline and Fall of the Editorial Cartoon" appeared in the national magazine Saturday Review. It sparked a panic among America's editorial cartoonists, many of whom put down their pens and convened in Washington, D.C. They formed their own advocacy organization, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, to defend their careers--to the end, if need be.

But editorial cartoonists kept their jobs, continued to poke fun and provoke feelings with their drawings, and reached a new level of importance during the era of Vietnam and the civil rights movement.

The latest fatalistic predictions began in the late 1990s. "Political cartooning is on the endangered species list," John Soloski, then director of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication, told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. The same article said about 100 daily newspapers employed cartoonists, down from about 170 two decades earlier.

Three years later, Soloski, who is now dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, still believes he's watching a profession in decline. "It ain't doing," he says of cartooning. In a few years, "fewer newspapers will have cartoonists and they'll be syndicated.... To me, it's a disservice. This is an important form of American journalism."

Signe Wilkinson, the cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News, says that this important form of expression is finding new homes: on television and on the Internet, for example. "The smart cartoonists are finding other venues for their work. It's just not confined to the editorial pages of mainstream newspapers," she says. However, Wilkinson emphasizes that the alternative outlets pay less, offer less job security and reach smaller audiences. Plus, "a newspaper cartoonist has a relationship with readers--good and bad--that really feeds the work."

Although the AAEC doesn't know the exact number of full-time editorial cartoonists on staff today, it is confident it is declining. Many in the industry believe their ranks have dipped to about 80. Clay Bennett, editorial cartoonist for the Christian Science Monitor, says that most vacancies are just never filled, and "it's almost like you forgot they ever existed."

But at least part of the decrease in the number of full-time cartoonists can be blamed on the existence of fewer newspapers. Newsday cartoonist Walt Handelsman grew up in Baltimore when it was a three-newspaper city, with the News American competing against the morning and evening Sun newspapers. He remembers reading the News American just for its cartoons. Now that newspaper is gone, and the two Suns are combined.

"That's just one small example. If you look at big cities around the country, [cartooning] has diminished because the industry itself has diminished," says Handelsman.

Adds Scott Stantis, editorial cartoonist for the Birmingham News and past president of the AAEC, "Editorial cartooning coming back is contingent on the newspaper industry as a whole coming back."

One cartoonist's retirement or death can spark a ripple effect. "If you've only got so many jobs out there, whenever one becomes open, it's musical chairs," Bennett says.

When cartooning legend Herblock died in October 2001, Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt says the newspaper's management was committed to hiring a new cartoonist, if it could find one. "I felt it wouldn't be a real editorial page without an editorial cartoonist of our own," Hiatt says. "A newspaper that [only uses syndicated material] loses a lot."

But the Post didn't rush to fill the job. Instead, it gave itself, and its readers, time to mourn Herblock. For about a month, Hiatt says, no cartoons ran on the editorial page during the week. On Saturdays, as it had for years, the newspaper featured "Drawing Board," a compilation of cartoons from around the country.

Then, at the end of November, the Post introduced "Sketchpad," a daily syndicated cartoon that ran on the main editorial page but not in Herblock's prominent upper spot. Picking the daily cartoon for that space, Hiatt says, was "the best part of my job.... If you look at the range of talent, from KAL [Kevin Kallaugher] in Baltimore to Ohman in Portland and all those in between, there's a lot of talent to pick from."

And from that talent, Hiatt and his hiring committee had to find Herblock's replacement. They looked at rookies and veterans, liberals and conservatives. Despite the Post's frugal reputation, Chairman Donald Graham didn't mention salary when he gave Hiatt instructions on how to conduct the search.

"My boss said, 'I think you should have the best cartoonist in the country, regardless of ideology.' That was the extent of my instructions," Hiatt says.

The search ended with Buffalo News editorial cartoonist Tom Toles. Toles began drawing for the Post in August, and Hiatt says he is thrilled with the choice. "Every day, I bask in how right that turned out to be," he says.

But Washington's gain was Buffalo's loss. Soon after it was announced that Toles was moving south, the cartooning world buzzed that the News wouldn't replace him. Margaret Sullivan, the News' editor and vice president, says that's not true.

Perhaps the rumors grew out of the newspaper's decision to fill two newsroom positions while the cartoonist job remained open. Sullivan says after a hiring freeze, the paper needed to fill empty reporting slots first. "I felt that was the area of greatest need for our newsroom," she says. "When further staff openings occur, we'll have to weigh how our replacement for a cartoonist fits into what our priorities are.... The most important thing we do is local enterprise reporting, which is not to say that political cartoons aren't important, too, but I'd say it's not the most important thing we do."

In August, the News did make an adjustment. Staff artist Dick Bradley, who draws a weekly cartoon for the Sports section, began doing one local political cartoon a week. Toles' syndicated cartoons continue to run four days a week. "This is the arrangement I see working for right now," Sullivan says. "I could certainly imagine having a full-time staff cartoonist at this paper. Whether that would be Dick or that would be somebody else, I can't say right now."

In San Jose, where the Mercury News has been without a cartoonist since the summer of 2001, a quest to find a new one is on hold, says Editorial Page Editor Dennis Ryerson. "It's no secret to anyone in the country that the economy in the Silicon Valley is as bad off as anywhere in the U.S. right now," Ryerson says. "We've had to put off doing some of the things we'd like to do, and one of those is hiring an editorial cartoonist. We haven't eliminated the position, and as soon as the economy starts to turn around for us, we intend to get back in the search."

Ryerson joined the Mercury News in the fall of 2001 after six years as editor of the Des Moines Register, where the editorial cartoon runs on the front page. Cartoons, Ryerson says, can draw in readers. "Cartoonists can bring a voice to local and state issues. That's critical," he says. "They add personality to a page and can provide a very sharp message that oftentimes can be more pointed than what we can do with our columns and editorials.... They're able to dive into issues, and they can drive things home."

Perhaps the best-known cartooning vacancy is the Chicago Tribune's. Tribune Editorial Page Editor Bruce Dold is tight-lipped when asked why the newspaper hasn't replaced MacNelly. "There's not much I can tell you other than I intend to hire a cartoonist and we are searching," Dold says. "There are a lot of good people out there."

The Tribune relies on syndicated cartoons to fill its page. Dold notes, however, that having a local editorial cartoonist is important. "I think a cartoon speaks to readers in a way writers do not. We've had some of the best cartoonists in the business at this paper," Dold says. "There is still a real need for cartoon commentary on local issues."

The Chattanooga Times Free Press' Plante says he understands why a newspaper would take its time hiring a new cartoonist because it's a very visible position, but he calls a delay like the one in Chicago inexplicable. "They just need to pull the trigger and make a decision," Plante says. "I think the readers are suffering because of it. They have to miss Jeff MacNelly, jeez."

Adds Ohman, "The time has come. The readers have gotten used to the idea that Jeff is gone.... In Jeff's case, I think it's tasteful not to hire somebody for six months. After that, it becomes a different discussion."

"Are we the saviors of the industry?" asks Stantis. "No, but I think we're a cog that's pretty important. As my editor says, cartoonists are expensive and they're a lot of trouble. And I think he's right, but they're worth the trouble."

Trouble? Yes, Stantis says, many cartoonists come with an artistic temperament and an impatience for corporate attempts to control them. (He remembers working at one newspaper where editors handed back his cartoon and told him to make it funnier.) Steve Kelley, now the editorial cartoonist at the Times-Picayune, says he was fired after his editors at the San Diego Union-Tribune accused him of trying to sneak a cartoon they didn't like into the newspaper (see Bylines, July/August 2001). Kelley says he denied the claim, then responded with an obscenity when an editor accused him of lying about it. After a two-week suspension, he was fired. His editors maintained it was for procedural reasons. At the time, Kelley told AJR his right-of-center political stance may have contributed to his dismissal from an editorial staff that is so politically divided "it's like the Middle East."

The Christian Science Monitor's Bennett was fired from the St. Petersburg Times in 1994 after 13 years on the job because, the newspaper said, his work no longer met its standards. Bennett and others believe the actual reasons were political differences between the liberal cartoonists and the more conservative community and a personality conflict between Bennett and his editor.

Cartoonists can also make enemies outside the newsroom, poking fun at local politicians who aren't afraid to vent their feelings at the newspaper's publisher or editors, Stantis says. That's not something that happens when the cartoonists take their pens to national figures like Alan Greenspan or George W. Bush.

"When you start drawing on local developers or men and women who sit across the country-club banquet table from your publisher, that's when [the publishers] start to get a little nervous," explains Bennett.

And those who watch a newspaper's bottom line inevitably get nervous when advertisers are offended. In 1999, Tandy Corp. pulled its ads from the Arizona Republic to protest the publication of a cartoon by Steve Benson. The controversial drawing linked the Texas A&M bonfire accident that killed 12 students to the fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco and the race-related murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper under the headline "Texas bonfire traditions." The newspaper also tallied thousands of e-mails and phone calls complaining about the cartoon.

But the Washington Post's Hiatt believes causing those controversies is one of the cartoonists' jobs. "It may make life more difficult for a publisher than if they used a rotating list of cartoonists on national issues, but a newspaper should engage readers and get them mad and get them cheering and get them involved with local issues," Hiatt says.

Since Marlette has been with the Tallahassee Democrat, reader reaction has been "angry, outraged, amused, bemused," says Editorial Page Editor Mary Ann Lindley. "Even the local politicians who say 'Don't put me in that briar patch' can't wait for him to do a caricature of them."

The Democrat had long run Marlette's cartoons, and Lindley, who took over as editorial page editor four years ago, says she and Marlette "kind of clicked in a lot of ways." When she proposed the idea of hiring Marlette, Executive Editor John Winn Miller and Publisher Mike Pate found the money to make it happen.

"We figured out a way to reinvest in the product as opposed to investing in Wall Street," she says. "We believe that good journalism will win out."

But the decision to add a cartoonist to the Democrat's staff after nearly 100 years without one didn't sit well with everyone in the newsroom, Lindley says. "Some have said, 'Wow, don't we need another higher ed reporter and don't we need this or that?" she says. But corporate parent Knight Ridder has said the addition of Marlette won't count against the paper's staffing levels, she says. Others in the newsroom are "tickled" to have a cartoonist and believe it elevates their work when good people join the staff, she says.

Some cartoonists have a greater fear: that editorial cartooning has become homogenized. They say artists are drawing inoffensive cartoons on lighter topics to get reprinted in national publications.

"Younger cartoonists really want to be in there so they do the cartoons like the ones they see in Newsweek and USA Today, and that perpetuates the cycle of mediocrity," Ohman says. "They're not thinking about public policy. They're thinking about stuff from 'Entertainment Tonight.' "

On the flip side, Ohman notes, reprints can be good for a cartoonist's career and his or her newspaper. "When I get a cartoon reprinted in the New York Times or somewhere, I think that's a real, tangible benefit to the reputation of the newspaper," Ohman says. "Cartoonists' getting national play can make a newspaper look good. Look back 30 years and nobody had heard of the Dayton Daily News before Mike Peters began drawing for them. What did that do for the Dayton Daily News? What did Marlette do for the Charlotte Observer?"

Marlette says the focus on reprints is a result of work by "careerists instead of cartoonists."

"It's coming from out there instead of in there. It reflects the time we live in," Marlette says. "Cartoons now, to me, are looking like IRS forms--boring, the kind of things accountants like. That's happening because editors and publishers have created an environment that's risk-averse, and great cartoons are risky.... The point is there's a whole generation of cartoonists who are boring, filling space and being mildly amusing. They bring up nothing that's going to upset advertisers or anybody."

Stantis, who uses the term "Newsweekization" to describe one of his profession's problems, says weekly cartoon collections are "the death of editorial cartooning."

"The way to get reprinted is to do cartoons that entertain, not engage," he says. "But I see and sense a sea change.... Is every reporter Ernie Pyle? No, no. There are some H.L. Menckens and the rest of us. The level of cartooning is, generally, very good. Look at the mean and compare it to 30 or 40 years ago. We're certainly past Mr. A-Bomb and John Q. Public. We try to make deeper references."

Plante says cartoonists must choose topics their readers are familiar with--often the biggest story of the day--and then satirize it in a familiar way. The result? Cartoons that are very similar (see Free Press, January/February 1999).

"Right now, there are probably tons of cartoons about West Nile virus and mosquitoes because that's what people know about," he says.

Will a good cartoon sell a newspaper? Newsday's Handelsman doesn't think so, saying that people "don't buy a newspaper to look at the editorial cartoon, other than my relatives."

But Marlette believes cartoonists can connect with readers on a level other journalists cannot. That bond, be it one of love or hate, will keep readers buying newspapers.

"It's a human thing between readers and cartoonists. The value of having a cartoonist on staff is you're engaging the community and having a conversation," Marlette says. "It's an intangible thing. These things don't show up on the bottom line. If everything was bottom-line driven, we'd have horoscopes on the front page."

No one knows what the future holds for editorial cartooning. Many of the cartoonists believe their numbers will continue to shrink as the country's few ongoing newspaper wars end with a single victor. Some see new media as the wave of the future. Still others hope the industry heads will realize the errors of their ways and revitalize the profession with new hires.

"It's a proven fact that readers in every survey are begging for more visuals and more local content in their newspapers," Plante says, "and I really think newspapers are missing the boat by not putting them together and hiring editorial cartoonists."