The future of the newspaper editorial cartoon

Bloghorn_newspaper_cartoon

Former editor of The Guardian, Peter Preston has written a piece in The Observer newspaper bemoaning the decline in numbers of editorial or political cartoonists being used in newspapers. You can read it here.

Preston focuses on recent job losses in the United States, which mirror the speedy decline of the print media there, but this trend has been long established. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists made an awareness campaignBlack Ink Monday – back in 2005 in which all the practising professionals in US newspapers devoted a day’s work to highlighting a decline in the published drawn art form.

So, Bloghorn thinks Preston’s observations are a simple statement of fact. There are many fewer cartoonists employed by both UK and US newspapers than there were in the heyday of the print media before the advent of the 24 hour digital publication tools.

The decline in the use of print cartoon content comes as the media companies who own the print products reduce their costs to try and maintain their profits in competition with the digital media.

Preston also argues the digital media doesn’t suit the traditional drawn forms of communication, Bloghorn doesn’t agree on this point, but thinks the old print and emerging digital media industry is yet to find right method of presentation for the future of drawing about life.

If you know better please tell us why in the comments below.

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