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Newspaper industry

How do you get your news and comics?

1 minute 32 comments

On the topic of the cost for an online NYT or WSJ account, Mike Lester asked in the comments how people got their news and comics – online. Rather than have that question buried in the comments, I’ve created a survey.

I’ll post the results in a tomorrow.

Poll closed. See the results.

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Comments 32

  1. To clarify: I’m asking the question the music industry asks, do you buy the media that supports the artists? In our industry, that’s newspapers and newspaper subscriptions.

  2. I usually only subscribe to newspapers that run my cartoons/comics with the exception of my hometown newspaper. The St. Louis Post Dispatch. But I have recently changed that subscription to weekend only for the comics.

    I don’t know why they are so small and most of the offerings are not my cup of tea. Am I disappointed by most Editors/Publishers choices for the comics, that answer is an astounding YES!

    For news I always prefer to watch the various news channels on the tube while I’m at the drawing boards.

    On a side note I would much rather watch animated features on the television than read the comics section of any newspaper. I will purchase original art or autographed prints directly from artists if I enjoy reading that certain artist’s funnies.

    (Or I often trade off artwork with other cartoonists.)

    So I guess in my own little small way I support cartoonists by subscribing, but If I wasn’t a cartoonist I would probably not subscribe to any newspapers/magazines etc. I just don’t like what a majority of Editors/Publishers think is funny. Sorry but I feel Editors are ruining the funny pages. A little out of touch with reality, and instead choose what they want to see/read on the funny pages.

  3. I got a Google Docs sign-in where I expected to see the survey. Is that how it’s supposed to work?

  4. I do not subscribe to newspapers, and haven’t for over 20 years.

    I trawl for news from CNN.com, Deseretnews.com, and .heraldextra.com, the latter two being the local sources. I also follow interesting links from the people I follow on Twitter, which may take me to online news sources anywhere. These sites also run ads. Some of those ads (especially for the local sites) are actually interesting to me.

    The only syndicated strip I read is Dilbert, and I read that from the RSS feed, which includes advertisements. Scott Adams makes as much money from having me as a reader as I make from having any one of my own readers on the web.

    The vast majority of the other comics I read are webcomics. I do subscribe to a small number of comic books, to the tune of maybe $15 per month. I also buy comic strip collections from my favorite webcomics – Realm of Atland, Book of Biff, Wondermark, and a few others.

  5. One more note: As I often remind myself, I AM NOT MY CUSTOMERS. Anytime I’m using my own purchasing habits to guide a merchandising decision, I’m about to make the wrong decision.

  6. “do you buy the media that supports the artists? In our industry, that?s newspapers and newspaper subscriptions.”

    if you buy a newspaper you are supporting the newspaper business not cartoonists. Syndicated strips are the band on the Titanic.

  7. I buy newspapers, magazines and books in massive quantities. I will buy anything paper as long as it’s produced. Many of my friends are writers and journalists and other creatives (whose creativity and performances are often advertised in print). My loyalty will always be to print even though I often feel like social media and internet offerings are dominating my life.

    Ironically, the more electronics I purchase, the more I find myself craving the simplicity of paper. Not sure whether that’s just me or my age or because I’m lazy. I’ve got one of everything, electronically, and I find them all to be exhausting. Picking up a book, magazine or newspaper is so easy.

    AND, nothing will ever equal the thrill of buying a magazine in a checkout line. (not sure if that’s just a girl thing).

    d

  8. I have five newspaper subscriptions, but it’s a business expense. Before I made newspaper ads I had one subscription.

    The band is playing some good songs.

  9. I read my local paper each day, skimming the comics because I also receive them in color in my email. They are so much easier to read and the artwork can be appreciated in color and larger. Nonsequitor practically disappears in newsprint. Newspapers are reducing comics to sizes that destroy them. I listen to NPR, sometimes watch national news and CNN while I work, receive NYT and WP in my email. Subscribe to the New Yorker and watch John Stewart. A big mixed bag!

  10. Life just wouldn’t be the same without being four months behind in reading the New Yorker, now would it?

  11. I get my local newspaper subscription and I watch network and cable news. I also buy graphic novels and reprint collections. I don’t buy comic-books (in periodical form) anymore.

  12. Sorry about that guys. I believe the form is now working.

    Sometimes technology is a …. {insert favorite expletive here}.

    -Alan

  13. We buy the same three newspapers each day. One half of my favorite comics are syndicated in these daily papers. The other half I must read online.

    As far as news is concerned, the ratio is three quarters newspapers to one quarter online. Editorial cartoons, unfortunately, mostly on line, but, I do read the editorial cartoons and op-ed pieces in each paper. I watch very little TV news.

  14. I am not young but my interest in cartoons and comics developed because of the Web.

  15. When I lived in Houston, I walked down our dirt road to the corner store each morning to pick up the Chronicle. Which for however ungodly small the comics were depicted had a vast array of good syndicated strips. 2+ pages worth! Now living in Boston, I haven’t nestled into any paper buying habit, the Herald doesnt have a great collection, although they’re printed larger and the Globe, who I used to work for, needs some comics Viagra, at least the dailys. Many years ago, I used to subscribe to the Cape Cod Times, which had a good selection back then and might still have, I’ll have to look into it. I never read online news sites, I prefer the articles in the papers and rarely watch TV news. I enjoy my friends webcomics, Velia Dear, Legend of Bill, Watson and others, but there’s a lot more I’d like to keep up with too. I rarely buy book collections from the newer stuff, but have a vast collection of the older strips already and growing..

  16. Alan, didn’t intend to give you a project and now that you’ve gone to this trouble, don’t mean to criticize but there are multiple answers to both questions -or at least for me there are.

  17. News? Internet and TV.

    Comics? Internet.

    The only newspaper still in my life is this small local paper that shows up mysteriously in everyone in my neighborhood’s driveway. No one reads it, but no one seems to know where it’s coming from or how to stop it.

  18. I get the majority of my news from English language broadcasts of foreign TV news via a TV satellite hookup. Your survey doesn’t include that.

    Comics. Online. Only.

  19. The survey is too simplistic. Most people that follow news and or comics use multiple sources. I don’t know what the point of this survey is, in that any answer will be incomplete at best.

  20. Hey, Mike! Pleasure meeting you at the Ruebens! The car runs great!.. 😉

  21. The poll is flawed. There can be more than one answer. I can answer that I get most of my news online (google news) and that won’t show that I also read the print edition of The Free Lance-Star, Washington Post or New York times.

    Since most newspapers don’t carry many political cartoons, I read most of them online. I check out editorialcartoonists.com, The Week, USNews & World Report, Creators.com, Gocomics.com and each Friday I read Time and USA Today online. I also hit up a few cartoonists’ blogs on a daily basis. I rarely visit Cagle.com

    I don’t read comic strips or web comics.

  22. The only print publication I subscribe to is The New Yorker. Donna is right: life just wouldn?t be the same without being way behind in reading that magazine. Every week, so much pressure. New Yorker, I love you and hate you.

  23. I’m a comic fan, not a cartoonist. I have a friend who is a gag writer for some strips & he is also an editorial cartoonist, so he subscribes to a few papers. I stopped subscribing to my local paper (The Orlando Sentinel) as the stories became less local (as many reporters were laid off) & more AP stories appeared in the paper. I could read those online. Also, the only comics the paper had were the “regular” ones such as For Better or Worse, Peanuts, Cathy, etc. I enjoy using Gocomics & other sites & have become a fan of many more comics that way. I probably read 125 comics every day. As a matter of fact, just by clicking on some names of the people who comment here have brought me to some enjoyable comics.

  24. I think the poll should be, where do you get News and Comics, and WHY do you choose that medium. I read everything online, news and comics. I think the comics in most papers are so bland and boring it forced me to go online to find newer comics. I understand humor is a matter of taste, but seriously, name a television network that is still running a sitcom that began airing in 1950, and after the creator dies, instead of putting on a new sitcom, they just air re-runs. But hey, no one wants to hear that…everyone wants to pretend that’s not an issue. Someone mentioned the Titanic, did you guys know Blondie started publication only 18 years after the Titanic sank. If you were BORN the VERY day Blondie started you’d be 81 today.

  25. I agree, the survey is too simple to be of any value. I subscribe to my daily print paper, but I don’t always read the news or the comics there. I read the print paper sometimes, if I have the time to sit with it and spend some time, which is the way I like to read it.

    Often, though, I’m pressed for time and get my news in small doses, some from dedicated news sources: NPR, CNN, USA Today, Washington Post, LA Times, WSJ and NYT (through aggregators), Flipboard on my iPad (for things like HuffPost, Wired, Print, New York Magazine, etc. and subject aggregators there, too). I also watch news on CNN, local newscasts and occasionally national newscasts. I read comics online sometimes through email, Comics Kingdom, GoComics (and formerly Comics.com), and sometimes through web comic sites. All the online stuff is in short snippets throughout the day. Plus I swap between subscriptions to The Week, Time, Newsweek.

    You don’t have enough buttons for all the ways I get my news.

  26. Oh, and many times I’ll just visit some strips online and read a month’s worth at a time.

    NPR, I listen to usually by scouring the site for stories I’m interested in and add them to my playlist and let them play while I work so if I get interrupted, I won’t miss anything.

    When I look at the list of all the things I read and view and listen to, I’m surprised I get any work done at all.

  27. Yup. Survey’s flawed. It’s a good start, but you need multiple-answer boxes.

    And interesting though it may be to poll the folks who read here, it’s not going to tell you a thing about what’s going on in the actual market. The sample size is too small, and heavily, heavily biased.

  28. I still get my news sent to me by a Raven. Am I behind the times?

  29. Print newspapers are muzak…excuse me but I want Rock ‘n’ Roll cartoons……that unfortunately are only found on the Internet.

  30. My local newspaper and though the web. Both are equally essential.

  31. “through” the web. –sorry, typo

  32. This is an interesting starter poll and thread because it highlights the problem with polls (leading questions and limited responses) and the complexity of desired responses.

    When editors poll readers about comics they give them the same limited choice and may not realise that what their readers want are different comics to what has been offered and more space for them…or not.

    For general news I read online newspapers. For breaking news, I go to twitter. But for in-depth coverage and analysis I would like to read a quality print newspaper at the weekend. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything like the New York Times here. The best paper is The Age, a Fairfax newspaper that continues to lose experienced staff (especially valuable locally-based sub editors) to the detriment of its print edition. It runs 3 cartoons – Non Sequitur, Zits and Wizard of Id. It dropped Arctic Circle to make room for another puzzle and don’t doubt that was a good business decision at the time. Print is better for puzzles, but cartoons can be bigger online.

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