Aaron Taylor, the editorial cartoonist for the Daily Herald in Provo Utah, has bid farewell to his readers. Aaron has been with the Daily Herald for the last 2 years in a dual role as cartoonist and graphic designer. Today is his last day as a staff cartoonist.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do. Unfortunately, I think I was born a couple of decades too late to make this my life-long occupation and I’m moving on to a new challenge as a creative director at a major construction company in Salt Lake City.
Being an editorial cartoonist will be an experience I’ll never forget. Hopefully the readers have enjoyed the ride half as much as I have.
I wish Aaron well. He’s a great cartoonist, and a really good guy. I just hope it was his decision to leave, and not the newspaper’s decision to force him out.
“Unfortunately, I think I was born a couple of decades too late to make this my life-long occupation”
IOW, they weren’t paying him enough. That’s what it sounds like to me.
Thanks for the kind words, Rob.
I wasn’t asked by the paper to leave – -in fact, they were disappointed to see me go. But looking at the newspaper industry as a whole, I just wasn’t sure how long a paper the size of the Daily Herald (35,000 circulation) would justify having a staff cartoonist.
I could see that perhaps in the future I would have to take on more responsibilities (that didn’t involve cartooning) and these would eventually eat away at the one thing I joined the paper to do in the first place. If I couldn’t do editorial cartoons as a majority of my job, then it wasn’t worth it to me to be on staff.